Gothenburg Symposium Targets Greening Global Tourism.

Gothenburg's planned 'Green Lung'
The Meeting convened as part of Davos Process in run up to Copenhagen Climate Change Summit.

The Gothenburg Symposium, to take place on September 14-15th in Gothenburg Sweden, has been convened as part of the UN’s Davos process to address how the development of sustainable consumption and production relates to the tourism sector in the run-up to the Copenhagen Agreement.

Leading figures from the European Union, national governments and industry will also be there to clarify how their respective institutions are greening the sector in order to make the necessary changes imposed by the climate change agenda and by the global economic crisis.

“With climate change and the global recession driving the current international political agenda, both politicians and businesses are warming to the idea of a global green economy.” Say the European Travel Commission and the UNWTO.

“The tourism sector is in the front line of these burning issues, yet is unlikely to receive the attention it deserves in the current high-level discussions concerning the replacement of the Kyoto protocol that will be finalised in Copenhagen this December.”

The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is doing its best to raise the profile of the sector as a key strategic element of global resilience and recovery, teaming up with the European Travel Commission (ETC) and Visit Sweden next month to show how tourism can play a leading role in the development of a sustainable global economy.

Professor Geoffrey Lipman, UNWTO Assistant Secretary General underscored the Organization’s commitment to work across the industry – public and private sector to advance a coherent response to the Climate and Development imperatives. The Gothenburg meeting will make an important contribution both in support of “Sealing the Deal” in Copenhagen and the longer road to a Green Economy.

Rob Franklin, ETC Executive Director, is making sure that National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) are fully informed of the prevailing problems and opportunities:

“Climate change is a driver of sustainable development, and NTOs need to pay attention to global and European-level policies and programmes that will help them maintain and improve their market share.”

The Gothenburg Symposium will launch ETC’s own climate change and sustainable tourism knowledge networking strategy for NTOs, using the European Environment Agency’s innovative DestiNet Sustainable Tourism Portal destinet.ew.eea.europa.eu

VISION on Sustainable Tourism is to run a special edition on the Symposium next week.

Valere Tjolle