Madrid, Spain 
March 2010 – 2010 is expected to be a year of transformation. The challenges facing the tourism sector in a post-crisis scenario set the framework for the activities and events organized by UNWTO during this year’s ITB Travel Trade Show (Berlin, Germany, 10-14 March 2010).
What lessons can be drawn from the crisis and what challenges lay ahead for the tourism sector as the world economy recovers and paradigms shift? In this context, the UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, will deliver the keynote address at the official opening of ITB (9 March).
Highlights of UNWTO’s presence at ITB 2010 include:
– ST-EP Forum (11 March): Organized by UNWTO and the ST-EP Foundation, the Forum will debate the role of tourism enterprises in driving local economic growth and present the cases of ST-EP projects in Ecuador, Ghana and Laos. In less than a decade, the Sustainable Tourism – Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) initiative has evolved from an ambitious idea into a comprehensive and fully operational initiative with projects all round the world. THIS MEETING IS OPEN TO THE PRESS.
– UNWTO news conference (11 March): With a focus on the latest tourism trends, the advances of UNWTO’s Roadmap for Recovery, including the outcomes of the recent meeting of the T20 Tourism Ministers in Johannesburg, and the potential contribution of tourism to the recovery process of Haiti. The conference will count with the participation of the Minister of Tourism of South Africa, H.E. Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, and of the Minister of Tourism of Haiti, H.E. Patrick Delatour.
– 4th Meeting of the Tourism Resilience Committee (12 March): Special attention will be given to the state of the world economy, the implementation of the Roadmap for Recovery with examples from various countries and the T20 and other related initiatives to position tourism in the global agenda. The TRC is a platform for UNWTO Members and key stakeholders to share information on the impact of the global economic crisis on tourism and on the path towards recovery. THIS MEETING IS OPEN TO THE PRESS.
Other UNWTO activities at ITB include:
– ‘Linking Tourism and Biodiversity – Experience from Indonesia and Thailand’ (10 March): An interactive session will present the projects carried out by UNWTO linking tourism development and the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in the Andaman coast of Thailand and in West Java, Indonesia, to assist overcoming the devastation of the 2004 tsunami. This event takes place in the framework of this year’s World Tourism Day theme ‘Tourism and Biodiversity’.
– The 25th Meeting of the Task Force for the Protection of Children in Tourism – the evolving efforts of UNWTO to advance and implement the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism will be addressed in the training practices and tools (12 March).
For complete information and timetable on all UNWTO activities at ITB 2010 go to: www.UNWTO.org.
