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UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism to analyze sector’s potential

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The countdown begins for the 5th World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism to be held on 2 and 3 May in Donostia-San Sebastián, organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Basque Culinary Center (BCC). International experts will analyze and discuss the influence and capacity of gastronomy tourism to create employment and promote entrepreneurship and how to increase its potential in the future. Registration to attend the forum is still open here.

Stimulating employment

The Forum will explore how the most favorable frameworks can be created in order to stimulate job creation and entrepreneurship throughout the gastronomy tourism value chain. In addition, the speakers will try to identify the most relevant skills for this type of tourism, which should foster synergies among emerging companies, promote the inclusion of disadvantaged groups and take full account of digitalization. The event will bring together speakers and experts from all regions of the world, as well as internationally renowned Basque chefs such as Elena Arzak, who is a UNWTO Ambassador for Responsible Tourism and joint head chef of the restaurant Arzak, and Andoni Luis Aduriz.
In addition, the event will host the presentation of the UNWTO/BCC Guidelines for the Development of Gastronomy Tourism.

Sessions and startups

The forum will open with a high-level panel with ministers and secretaries of state from countries that have included gastronomy tourism as part of their strategies, such as Cyprus, Slovenia or Spain, among others. Under the theme, “Public policies as key ingredients to promote gastronomy tourism”, the participants will discuss the necessary political framework for the development of gastronomy tourism as well as its capacity to create jobs and promote entrepreneurship.

In addition to shedding light on the competencies needed to meet the demands of gastronomy tourists, the sessions will encourage the creation of environments that stimulate entrepreneurship, that connect emerging companies and better integrate disadvantaged groups in the labour market. Issues related to local communities or to under-represented groups, such as women, youth and persons with disabilities, will also be discussed. In addition, topics such as the digitalization of the sector will also be analyzed in order to identify the new opportunities they offer to companies. In addition, the latest advances in the creation of the necessary framework to stimulate entrepreneurship will be presented, connecting the different ecosystems with the startups that are part of the value chain of gastronomy tourism.

In this context, the five finalist startups of the First Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition, organized by the UNWTO and the BCC, will present the most innovative projects in line with the UNWTO’s strategy and the contribution of gastronomy tourism to the sustainable development goals.

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UNWTO: Balearic Islands first tourism destination developed under 2030 Agenda

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Deploying new resources and actions for the progressive adaptation of the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera) to the objectives of the 2030 Agenda, is one of the main objectives of the agreement signed between the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the IMPULSA BALEARS Foundation. Its aim is to jumpstart the process of the strategic reformulation of tourism in order to make an effective contribution to sustainable development.

The planning and execution of new projects focused on local sustainability taking into account the tourism production and consumption patterns of the Balearic Islands, close relations with regional actors, harnessing public-private synergies, and the generation of strategic knowledge on the part of the foundation, are among the key features of this cooperation with the UNWTO, as the United Nations agency responsible for promoting tourism as a vehicle for sustainable development.

The establishment of circular economy guidelines in the hotel sector of the Islands and the identification of best practices already being implemented in this regard are among the first initiatives of the agreement. The objectives are to establish a specific approach to the relationship between hotel activity and its surrounding environment, to obtain intelligence that facilitates decision-making in the implementation of responsible consumption and production measures in line with the 2030 Agenda, and to lay down a strategic framework to activate the network of companies in the sector and other stakeholders.

The memorandum of understanding, signed by UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, and the President of IMPULSA BALEARS, Carmen Planas, will be in force until 31 December 2021.

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How safe is travel to Africa? African Tourism Board appoints SaferTourism

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African Tourism Board, (ATB)  has travel and security on its top agenda when attracting visitors to the continent.

At the upcoming ATB Launch on April 11, the organization will be announcing their appointment of SaferTourism.com to provide support and guidance to keep African Tourism Safe.

The man behind SaferTourism.com is no other than one of the best global experts available in this field.

Dr. Peter Tarlow, seen as a world-renowned expert in travel and tourism will be the keynote speaker at the African Tourism Board Launch Event on April 11.

ATB members and WTM visitors will be able to meet Dr. Tarlow at the African Tourism Board Stand (AP 12). His goal is to provide proactive guidance and hands-on approach to keep African destinations, hotels and attractions safe and available specifically for North American Visitors.

Dr. Tarlow is leading SaferTourism’s  Visitor Surety approach, meaning:

• The providing of a safe and secure environment for visitors and for those who work in its visitor industry
• Protection of tourism sites and infrastructure
• Perceptions, including how these perceptions impact its reputation
• The Protection of the economy vis-à-vis its tourism industry

Dr. Tarlow has been working on projects around the world and is known to include feedback from the US State Department in many of his international projects.

Dr. Peter Tarlow will be a speaker at the ATB Launch event on April 11,2019 during WTM Cape Town.

He is a world-renowned speaker and expert specializing in the impact of crime and terrorism on the tourism industry, event and tourism risk management, and tourism and economic development.  Since 1990, Tarlow has been aiding the tourism community with issues such as travel safety and security, economic development, creative marketing, and creative thought.

Tarlow has worked with numerous US government agencies including the US Bureau of Reclamation, US Customs, the FBI, the US Park Service, the Department of Justice, the Speakers Bureau of the US Department of State, the Center for Disease, US Supreme Court police, and the US Department of Homeland Security.  He has worked with such US iconic locations as the Statue of Liberty, Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and Liberty Bell, the Empire State Building, St. Louis’ arch, and the Smithsonian’s Institution’s Office of Protection Services in Washington, DC.

Tarlow has been a keynote speaker for governors’ tourism conferences around the nation including those for Illinois, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington State and Wyoming.

He has addresses large-scale US government meetings for such agencies as:

  • The Bureau of Reclamation
  • The US Center for Disease Control
  • The US Park Service,
  • The International Olympic Committee

On the international scene, he has addressed conferences such as:

  • The Organization of American States (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Panama City, Panama),
  • The Latin American Hotel Association (Quito Ecuador, San Salvador, El Salvador and Puebla, Mexico),
  • The Caribbean Chiefs of Police Association (Barbados),
  • The International Organization for Security and Intelligence – IOSI  ((Vancouver, Canada),
  • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ottowa
  • The French Hotel Association CNI-SYNHORCAT (Paris)

Additionally, Tarlow is a featured speaker for numerous US embassies and with foreign tourism ministries around the world. For example, in his role as an expert in tourism security he has worked with:

  • Vancouver’s Justice Institute  (2010 Olympic games)
  • The police departments of the state of Rio de Janeiro (2014 World Cup Games)
  • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police,
  • The United Nation’s WTO (World Tourism Organization),
  • The Panama Canal Authority,
  • Police forces in Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Curaçao, Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Serbia, and Trinidad & Tobago.

In 2013 the Chancellor of the Texas A&M system named him his Special Envoy.  In 2015 the Faculty of Medicine of Texas A&M University asked Tarlow to “translate” his tourism skills into practical courses for new physicians.  As such he teaches courses in customer service, creative thinking and medical ethics at the Texas A&M medical school

In 2016 the international engineering firm Gannet-Fleming appointed Tarlow its Senior Security and Safety Specialist  Also in 2016, Governor Gregg Abbot of Texas named Tarlow as the Chairman of the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. As such he has wide experience in dealing with protest marches and other public events that touch upon that theme.

Tarlow organizes tourism security conferences around the world, including the International Tourism Safety Conference in Las Vegas along with conferences in St. Kitts, Charleston (South Carolina), Bogota, Colombia, Panama City, Croatia, and Curaçao

Tarlow lectures and trains tourism professionals and security personnel in multiple languages on a wide range of current and future trends in the tourism industry, rural tourism economic development, the gaming industry, issues of crime and terrorism, the role of police departments in urban economic development, and international trade.  Some of the other topics about which he speaks are: the sociology of terrorism, its impact on tourism security and risk management, the US government’s role in post terrorism recovery, and how communities and businesses must face a major paradigm shift in the way they do business.

Tarlow publishes extensively in these areas and writes numerous professional reports for US government agencies and for businesses throughout the world.  He has been asked to be an expert witness in courts throughout the United States on matters concerning tourism security and safety, and issues of risk management.

As a well-known author in the field of tourism security, Tarlow is a contributing author to multiple books on tourism security and publishes numerous academic and applied research articles regarding issues of security including articles published in The Futurist, the Journal of Travel Research and Security Management.  Tarlow’s wide range of professional and scholarly articles includes articles on subjects such as: “dark tourism”, theories of terrorism, and economic development through tourism, religion and terrorism and cruise tourism.  Tarlow also writes and publishes the popular online tourism newsletter Tourism Tidbits read by thousands of tourism and travel professionals around the world in its English, Spanish, and Portuguese language editions.

Among the books that Tarlow has authored are:

  • Event Risk Management and Safety (2002).
  • Twenty Years of Tourism Tidbits: The Book (2011)
  • Abordagem Multdisciplinar dos Cruzeiros Turísticos (co-written 2014, in Portuguese)
  • Tourism Security: Strategies for Effective Managing Travel Risk and Safety (2014)
  • A Segurança: Um desafío para os setores de lazer, viagens e turismo, 2016 published (in Portuguese) and republished in English
  • Sports Travel Security  (2017)

At numerous universities around the world Tarlow lectures on security issues, life safety issues, and event risk management. These universities include institutions in the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Pacific Islands, and the Middle East.  Tarlow earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Texas A&M University.  He also holds degrees in history, in Spanish and Hebrew literatures, and in psychotherapy.

Tarlow has appeared on national televised programs such as Dateline: NBC and on CNBC and is a regular guest on radio stations around the US.   He is the recipient of the International Chiefs of Police highest civilian honor in recognition for his work in tourism security.

Tarlow is a founder and president of Tourism & More Inc. (T&M).  He is a past president of the Texas Chapter of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA).  Tarlow is a member of the International Editorial Boards around the world.

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UNWTO Convenes Cities in Lisbon to Cooperate on a Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Tourism Agenda

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The first UNWTO Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism, co-organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Ministry of Economy of Portugal and the Lisbon Municipality concluded Friday in Lisbon, Portugal. The event gathered Mayors and high-level city representatives from around the world, UN agencies and the private sector, to design a shared leadership aimed at ensuring that tourism helps creating cities for all.

Under the theme ‘Cities for all: building cities for citizens and visitors’, the forum explored issues and solutions for developing and managing tourism in cities in a way that promotes economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

In a time of intense debate over the growing number of tourists and the livability and sustainability of cities, the forum exchanged ideas and good practices on urban tourism and destination management, discussed innovative tools and public policies on urban tourism at the national and local levels and way of promoting the integration of tourism into wider national and local urban development agenda.

“The income generated from tourism contributes significantly to the socio-economic and cultural development of many cities and its surroundings. Yet, the growth of urban tourism also creates important challenges in terms of the use of natural resources, socio-cultural impact, pressure on infrastructure, mobility, congestion management and relationship with host communities. Tourism policies should thus be designed as integrated urban policies that promote a well-balanced city economically, socially and environmentally” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili opening the event.

The Portuguese Minister of Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, acknowledged that “tourism is a major driver for the Portuguese economy. Portugal welcomes this first Mayors Forum as an international stage for discussing the challenges that urban tourism faces and how local communities can benefit the most from tourism. The Lisbon Declaration is a firm commitment from all participants so that tourism contributes materially to the Sustainable Development Goals”.

The Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, added that “social sustainability in tourism is one of the main priorities in our 2027 Tourism Strategy. We launched a Sustainability Program for the development of projects by the civil society that involve local populations and tourists so that tourism leaves value in the territories”.

The Mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, said “The growth of tourism has important and positive economic impacts. Yet for managing such growth, ensuring sustainability and safeguarding the quality of life of Lisbon’s citizens requires more investment in infrastructure. In Lisbon, we are implementing measures such as increasing transport capacity and investment in urban infrastructure catering for residents and tourists.”

Issues discussed include big data and innovative solutions, new business models, creative cities and events, infrastructure, resources and planning, local community engagement and empowerment and how to ensure the full inclusion of tourism in the wider urban agenda.

Participating in the Forum were Gustavo Santos of Argentina, Secretary of State for Tourism of Argentina, Ana Mendes Godinho, Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal, Isabel Oliver, the Secretary of State for Tourism of Spain, Mayors and Vice Mayors of 16 cities around the world (Barcelona, Bruges, Brussels, Dubrovnik, Helsinki, Lisbon, Madrid, Moscow, Nur-Sultan, Paris, Porto, Prague, Punta del Este, Tbilisi, Sao Paulo and Seoul), UNES>CO, UN Habitat, the World Bank, the European Committee of the Regions as well as Amadeus, Airbnb, CLIA, Expedia, Mastercard and Unidigital.

The Forum adopted the Lisbon Declaration on Sustainable Urban Tourism, in which participants reinforced their commitment to align urban tourism policies with the United Nations New Urban Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, namely Goal 11 – ‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’.

The Lisbon Declaration on Sustainable Urban Tourism will be presented at the twenty-third session of the General Assembly of UNWTO, to be held this September in St. Petersburg, Russia.

During the event, UNWTO Secretary-General and the Mayor Bakhyt Sultanov of Nursultan (Kazakhstan) signed an agreement for the hosting of the 8th UNWTO Global Summit on Urban Tourism, to be held on 9 to 12 October 2019.

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Russia prepares for OTDYKH International Travel Market and UNWTO General Assembly

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Two landmark events in the Russian travel industry – which take place this September – mark not only an important development in Russian travel but also a fantastic opportunity for companies in the travel industry looking to take advantage of the lucrative Russian market.

All eyes in the travel industry will be on Moscow and St. Petersburg this fall, as Russia’s capital gets ready to host the OTDYKH 2019 and Russia’s second major city prepares to host the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization, at which representatives from 156 countries will participate. It is the first time that this biennial event is being hosted by the Russian Federation.

St. Petersburg is the first Russian city to sign a cooperation memorandum with UNWTO, which was signed in July last year in order to facilitate the development of cultural, winter and medical tourism as well as technological advances related to the travel industry.

Visitors can conveniently attend both events, as Moscow and St. Petersburg are connected by a high-speed train which travels between the two cities in just 4 hours.

OTDYKH International Travel Market is Russia’s leading B2B travel and tourism event. Since 1995, OTDYKH Leisure is a traditional meeting spot for travel professionals, including tour operators, private companies as well as national and regional tourism agencies.

In an exciting development in the run-up to OTDYKH, the Republic of Komi and the Republic of Crimea have decided to increase their stands this in order to showcase even more information at the upcoming expo. The expo also welcomes several new-comer Russian regions which are the Republic of Buryatia and the Kemerovo Region – both located in Siberia – the Primorsky Region in the Far Eastern Federal District, and Russia’s largest island, Sakhalin.  In addition to this, 23 other Russian regions have already confirmed their participation in the expo, with many more expected to sign up in the coming months. These include the Republic of Karelia, home to the beautiful Kizhi Island, and the Republic of Tartarstan, of which the capital Kazan receives over a million tourists every year. Last year 44 Russian regions displayed at the expo.

OTDYKH is excited to announce the Hosted Buyers Program 2019. Once again, suppliers will have the opportunity to network with a select group of hosted buyers in the interest of forging valuable working relationships. Last year the expo invited 40 hosted buyers from across 32 cities in Russia to meet the exhibitors.

In addition to the Russia regions, among the 900 participants featured in the expo will be Indonesia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, India, Spain, Greece, Serbia, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka etc. will also be participating. It is the perfect opportunity for travel and tourism related companies to take advantage of the Russian market.

Over 38,000 visitors attended the expo in 2018, as well as 287 media attendees from 80 media partners. This year will feature multiple conference halls with guest speakers and exclusive live performances. The business program will combine all relevant sectors of the tourism value chain, from MICE and Luxury Travel to Health and Gourmet Travel.

Exhibitors are invited to participate and celebrate the 2019 OTDYKH Leisure trade fair and celebrate 25 years of the expo’s continued success. Early-bird offers are available on a first-come-first serve basis to those looking to seize the opportunity to tap-into the Russian travel industry.

For further information please contact Ms. Anna Huber at [email protected] International office: +43 1 230 85 35

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