Interview: First World Conference on Tourism for Development to help achieve UN sustainability goals: UNWTO official

The First World Conference on Tourism for Development, which is set for May in Beijing, will contribute to the fulfilling of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an official with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has said.

The 17 SDGs were adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit on Sept. 25, 2015 with the aim of fighting poverty, ending inequality and injustice and also combating climate change, among other things.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Dirk Glaesser, director of the sustainability program at the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), explained how tourism was fulfilling these aims.

He said international tourism has grown from around 25 million travelers in the 1950s to "almost 1.2 billion tourist arrivals" in 2015.

"Tourism in that sense is contribution to the SDG 8 of promoting economic growth, allowing prosperity and development," he said, highlighting the need for "sustainable development in the tourism sector and society."

Glaesser explained that tourism was "reflected in all 17 SDGs" but was "expressively referred to in three of them," which are "SDG 8, for inclusive economic growth, SDG 12, for sustainable consumption and production, and SDG 14, for sustainable use of oceans."

When asked how international tourism could be sustainable when most forms of transport rely on the use of fossil fuels, he agreed it was important to "limit the negative consequences of tourism," adding the UNWTO was working on the tools to "better measure the impact tourism has on society, on the environment, and on culture."

The Beijing conference will dedicate a session to "tourism for peace" looking at how visiting a country helps promote better understanding between people.

"The tourism experience is also an experience of other people, other cultures, and other mentalities and through this greater understanding we are able to promote a better future," said Glaesser.

He focused on how tourism could promote improved infrastructures in many parts of the developing world, where "routes developed to countries because of tourism which then allow the resident population to access other places."

This is also a link to the question of accessibility, which is becoming increasingly important with the aging population. "Accessibility is also a question of quality. It is something we see coming more and more in the agenda. Tourism is a facilitator of this agenda," Glaesser said.

Other SDGs which could benefit from the presence of tourism are education, as workers learn skills to deal with international visitors, while "product development and different economic activities... promoted by the right mix of source markets and domestic and international tourism," would help end the seasonality of many jobs in the tourism and related sectors.

Finally, Glaesser expressed his optimism that the Beijing conference would be a success.

"We have been preparing for the conference for a long time and the Beijing declaration will reflect that. What is important is to build momentum and to build a consensus among leaders, because the tourism sector will not grow on its own, however, it is one which can inspire other activities to grow sustainably. If we reach this outcome in Beijing we have done a lot," he concluded. Endit