32 years ago and for the first time, the UNESCO declared the city of Quito, Ecuador, as the first WORLD HERITAGE SITE. Moreover, last September, Quito was declared the American Capital of Culture 2011 by the International Bureau of Cultural Capitals (IBOCC).
This nomination places Quito as a worldwide cultural referent, motivating locals and foreigners to learn about the treasures that the city holds and understand why Quito will be the American Capital of Culture.
One of these treasures is the Historic Centre, artistic jewel located in an area of 320 hectares. It holds monumental buildings and 5.000 properties that are registered as heritage sites. Quito’s Historic Centre is considered the largest, least altered, and best preserved of America.
Quito was the cradle of a millenary mixture of people and cultures that made of this city a unique place, and today it hoards four centuries of memories, creation, faith, art, ancestral knowledge, conscience and rebelliousness, life, determination and hope.
Throughout history, Quito has hosted pedestrians, worshipers, scientists, warriors, architects, emperors, and a great number of men and women that understood the value of this land and contributed to the development of this metropolis, strategically located in the centre of the planet Earth.
Thus, being declared the American Capital of Culture is not merely a title. It is a merit to all those generations that made of this city the cultural treasure it is today.
To capitalize this merit, the city of Quito and The Ecuador Ministry of Tourism have teamed up with GSAR Marketing to hold this year the third edition of CULTOUR, Global Heritage and Cultural Travel Exhibition in Quito, where global cultural travel and tourism professionals will meet with world wide travel and tourism suppliers to set up international heritage and cultural travel packages. The event will take place June 22nd to 24th, 2011, in Quito, the American Capital of Culture of 2011. CULTOUR has been held before in Santiago de Compostela, Spain and Cologne, Germany.
