Brazil Forum to Focus on Sustainable Tourism
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (November 27, 2006) – There has been a growing recognition of the value of using tourism for conserving fragile ecosystems and for harnessing its wealth creation capacity to benefit local communities, says Lelei LeLaulu, President of Counterpart International. "But much more still needs to be done to harness the power of tourism, the world's largest and fastest growing industry, to fight poverty."
Speaking ahead of the World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Tourism which opens this week in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, LeLaulu credited the vision of Brazilian President Lula da Silva and the local private sector for seeing the enormous potential of sustainable tourism as a means of creating wealth for the poorer countries of the world.
"Tourism is a real peace dividend and it is the industry which thrives in the absence of war. It's also a highly resilient industry which bounces back a lot quicker than others after a war," asserted LeLaulu.
"Thanks to some hard work and creativity, Brazil and the World Tourism Forum have become rightly synonymous with tourism, peace and development," said LeLaulu, one of the Forum's founding directors who will address the Forum on tourism being the greatest voluntary shift of wealth from the rich to the poor of the world.
Counterpart International also will present its Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) model during the conference's "media day" on Friday.
The Forum is a continuing movement which connects tourism with economic and social development, cultural diversity, the preservation of biodiversity and the creation of conditions whereby peace can prevail.
"These Annual Summits clearly demonstrate that it is no longer possible to separate competitiveness from sustainability. They have produced major advances that directly impacted public policies, corporate decisions, community alliances and the improvement of tourism," says Sergio Foguel, Chairman of the Tourism for Peace and Sustainable Development Foundation.
From November 29 to December 2, the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre will host the Forum, also known as "Destinations2006", following successful annual events in Salvador, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro which together attracted thousands of delegates from scores of nations.
Organisers say this week's event will attract about 5,000 delegates, including entrepreneurs, professionals, scholars and students, representatives of governmental agencies and NGOs.
Conceived by the Instituto de Hospitalidade, a Brazilian NGO, with the counsel of Counterpart International, the World Tourism Forum is a joint initiative of the Tourism for Peace and Sustainable Development Foundation, Brazil's Ministries of Tourism, Labor and Employment, Culture and the Environment; the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and a handful of other United Nations agencies.
For further information, visit www.desti-nations.net.
For further information about Counterpart International and CMEx, visit www.counterpart.org and www.caribbeanmediaexchange.com respectively.
Source: eTurboNews