With the support of the United
Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO),
the Pacific Asia Tourism Association
(PATA) and The International
Ecotourism Society (TIES), over 300
participants comprising the public,
private and non-governmental sectors
from 30 countries met at the World
Ecotourism Conference 2009, hosted
by Lao National Tourism
Administration in Vientiane, Lao PDR
between 15 and 17 July 2009.
The participants of the World
Ecotourism Conference, comprising
representatives from national and
local governments including the
tourism, environment and other
administrations, private ecotourism
businesses and their trade
associations, non-governmental
organizations, academic institutions
and consultants, intergovernmental
organizations, and indigenous and
local communities:
Reaffirming the International Year
of Ecotourism 2002, the World
Ecotourism Summit 2002 and the
Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism
2002 as agreed by all parties
attending the Summit
Acknowledging that in spite of the
Declaration and the overall
consensus reached during 2002, the
term “ecotourism” is still being
misused and abused as a mere
marketing and promotional tool by
many companies and destinations,
without any sense of responsibility
or respect towards the natural and
human environments
Recognising the limitations of this
consultative process to incorporate
the input of all developing
countries, including representatives
from the Greater Mekong Sub-Region
(GMS), the
Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth
Triangle (IMT-GT) and
Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines
East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA)
In light of the above, the
participants of the World Ecotourism
Conference, having met in Vientiane,
Lao PDR from 15 to 17 July 2007,
produced a Visionary Statement:
To mainstream sustainable tourism
principles, processes and practices
into all aspects of tourism
initiatives, management,
development, interpretation,
programs, plans, policies, projects,
proposals, propositions, strategies,
systems and undertakings to meet the
challenges of the Energy-Climate
Era, while respecting geo-cultural
and civilised heritage, shall also
responsibly include and express
values of localization and cultural
differences.
Supported by a series of affirmative
actions to be disseminated to all
member countries of UNWTO:-
Synergies and Partnerships
Committing to adaptive synergies and
private-public sector partnerships
in meeting the challenges of the
Millennium Development Goals
Measuring the Value of Tourism
Products and Services Identifying
and adopting value chain analysis
and other acceptable forms of
evaluation to measure the value of
private sector tourism products and
services in meeting the triple
bottom line objectives while
remaining commercially competitive.
Capacity Building and Role of
Academia Strengthening tourism human
resources through education and
training, with special focus on
youth and women and recognizing the
important role of academia in
incorporating sustainable principles
and ideology in tourism education
curriculum.
Inception of Asia Pacific Ecotourism
Society Building a framework and
common platform for the Asia Pacific
region to develop and nurture
leadership among ecotourism players
and stakeholders, particularly in
the developing countries as well as
to foster private-public-people
partnerships in delivering the
action plans and achieving the
vision and goals set forth by the
World Ecotourism Conference in
Vientiane.
Vientiane, 17th July 2009
(www.weco2009laos.com)
Note: Delegates of WEC2009
were instrumental in drafting the
Vientiane Declaration under the
chairmanship of Mr Peter Semone. The
Vientiane Declaration was
subsequently endorsed by the United
Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)
on 3rd August 2009.
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