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Conference Title: 25th Annual Meeting of UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization)
Date: October 16-20, 2023
Organizer: UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization)
Location: Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Main Participants
The annual meeting was attended by representatives of tourism ministries from 159 UNWTO member countries, as well as UNWTO supporting members, private sector officials, and international organizations.
From JICA, Director Sachiko Imoto and Junior Specialist Tomomi Sato (Economic Development Division) participated.
Background and Objectives
The United Nations World Tourism Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations for the promotion and development of tourism.JICA has been collaborating with UNWTO since signing a cooperation agreement in 2017 to further promote sustainable development through tourism. JICA has been implementing various activities related to tourism development for developing countries in collaboration with UNWTO since signing a cooperation agreement with UNWTO in 2017 to further promote sustainable development through tourism.
As part of the collaboration with UNWTO, JICA introduced the TIPs (Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Through Tourism – Toolkit of Indicators for Projects), which was jointly published in July 2023, to the participants of the annual meeting. TIPs (Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Through Tourism – Toolkit of Indicators for Projects), which was jointly published in July 2023 as part of JICA’s collaboration with UNWTO, was introduced to tourism development officials who participated in the annual meeting.
Director Imoto and Senior Director Urosevic
Contents
As one of the results of the collaboration with UNWTO, the project study “Research on Tourism Development Support for the Achievement of the SDGs” found that tourism development is recognized to contribute fully to the achievement of all SDGs and to have a cross-sectoral impact.
On the other hand, it was also confirmed that it is difficult to objectively measure the impact (contribution) that tourism brings to each of the SDGs. Therefore, from 2020, through the “Information Collection and Verification Study on Tourism Development Support for Achieving the SDGs,” an indicator toolkit “Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through Tourism – Toolkit of Indicators for Projects (commonly known as TIPs)” will be developed to enable objective measurement and evaluation of the contribution of tourism-related projects, businesses, and operations to the SDGs. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through Tourism – Toolkit of Indicators for Projects (TIPs)” was developed in July 2023.
During the plenary session and side events, UNWTO Director General Zurab Pololikashvili and Senior Director Zoritsa Urosevic introduced the TIPs to tourism stakeholders from member countries, who appreciated the first collection of indicators developed to assess the sustainability of tourism and its contribution to the SDGs. The TIPs was highly appreciated by a wide range of tourism sector stakeholders, including international organizations, private operators, and tourism ministries, as a toolkit that can be used to link a wide range of issues, including environmental issues, to tourism.
UNWTO Secretary General explains completion of TIPs at annual meeting
A side event, “Central Asia Tourism Workshop,” was held as a culmination of technical cooperation in the tourism sector implemented by UNWTO and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Ms. Tomomi Sato, Junior Specialist, Private Sector Development Group, Economic Development Department, JICA, took the stage to explain JICA’s cooperation policy in the tourism sector and the outline of TIPs. Ms. Tomomi Sato, Junior Specialist, Private Sector Development Group, Economic Development Division, JICA, spoke at the workshop and explained JICA’s cooperation policy in the tourism sector, the results of cooperation in the tourism sector in Central Asia, and an overview of TIPs.
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