Lisbon,
Portugal, 8 April 2019 – 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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