(Washington, D.C, December 9, 2013) Steve Noakes, Co-Chair of the GSTC Knowledge Network, Education & Training (KNET) Working Group contributed to the sustainability agenda at the inaugural UNWTO Spiritual Tourism and Sustainable Development Conference hosted with the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in Ninh Binh, Vietnam from 21 – 22 November 2013.
Spiritual tourism includes travel for pilgrimage, religious or secular purpose to a holy, natural or war memorial site. In some major pilgrimage destinations it results in the movement of millions of people in confined times and places, raising complex issues on sustainability within host destinations.
"This is a turning point in a subset that contributes with hundreds of millions of visitors to the world´s key sites every year and the first conference that will explore how motivations, traditions and beliefs can be integrated in the context of sustainable tourism" explained Steve.
"Segmenting this market in terms of spiritual or cultural motivations and managing the impacts of the visitors is necessary for tourism development, safeguarding living traditions of local communities while providing tourists, unique experiences" he concluded.
Photo: (back, from left to right) I Gede Ardika, former Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Steve Noakes with (front) tourism officials at Trang An, Vietnam
About GSTC
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council is a global initiative dedicated to promoting sustainable tourism efforts around the world. The GSTC works to expand understanding of and access to sustainable tourism practices; helps identify and generate markets for sustainable tourism; educates about and advocates for a set of universal principles, as defined by the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. The Criteria, a set of voluntary principles that provide a framework for the sustainability of tourism businesses across the globe, are the keystone of this initiative. For more information visit www.gstcouncil.org.
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About UNWTO
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.
As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide… For more information about UNWTO, visit http://www2.unwto.org/
