for National Geographic News
In a recent National Geographic News interview, Traveler Editor-in-Chief Keith Bellows asserted that the United Nations (UN) failed to give tourism the attention it deserved at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. ("World Summit Erred by Ignoring Tourism, Editor Says," see "Related Stories" below.)
Eugenio Yunis—head of Sustainable Development of Tourism at the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the leading international forum for tourism policy issues—dismisses Bellows's claim, arguing that tourism was a high priority. Here, Yunis gives his take on tourism's place at the Summit.
Why do you disagree with Bellows's assertion that tourism was not a high priority at the Summit?
EY: The Summit at Johannesburg addressed main issues such as poverty, access to water and sanitation, and development aid. But it did not examine every economic sector by activity.
There were no discussions about, just for the sake of argument, the car industry or the pharmaceutical industry. But tourism was not ignored—it was in fact discussed. It was discussed at the full congregation of ministries at the World Summit. This included speeches by some 50 secretaries of different UN agencies, including the tourism agency.
Tourism's part in these deliberations is reflected in the Plan of Implementation, which is the final, authorized document of the World Summit. Several articles in this plan mention tourism and one article in particular, "Paragraph 41," is exclusively dedicated to sustainable tourism.
Are these significant mentions?
We think so; of course we also wanted more. If you compare the Johannesburg Agenda with the 1992 Rio World Summit agenda, where tourism was totally ignored, the progress is enormous. Now, what are we going to do with it?
We are currently spelling out activities that will implement the plans. In the case of Africa, for instance, we are putting together a program to raise money for such countries as Uganda and Algeria. It's not just our idea; it was one of the plans agreed upon by all governments at the Johannesburg Summit. So this gives us a lot of strength to approach fund sources and say, "Look, we have this recommendation to support African countries."
What do you consider to be sustainable tourism?
First of all, sustainable tourism does not exhaust the resource base on which it is constructed. Secondly, it does not negatively impact the local social and cultural fabrics of the host community. On the contrary, it generates positive impacts, including economic ones.
We like to talk more of "sustainable development and management of tourism" rather than "sustainable tourism" per se in order to avoid a common misunderstanding. Talking about "sustainable tourism" implies that there are some types of tourism that should be sustainable and others that should not be. This is wrong.
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