This week, ECPAT International attended the official closing ceremony of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017 at the Palace of Nations, Geneva.
The event reviewed the year´s main achievements and discussed the roadmap for advancing the contribution of tourism towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“2017, the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, has been a unique opportunity for all of us to come together to promote the contribution of tourism to shape a better future for people and planet and to contribute to making this world a better place,“ said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, opening of the event. “We count on you as we embark on this exciting new journey towards 2030. I trust that together, as a sector, as people with the same vision and commitment, we will go far,” he added.
The panel discussions counted with the participation of the Ministers of Tourism of Costa Rica, Mauricio Ventura, Jamaica, Edmund Bartlett and Kenya, Najib Balala alongside representatives of IY2017 partners such All Nippon Airways, Amadeus, the Balearic Islands Tourism Agency, ECPAT International, the Institute for Tourism and Leisure, HTW Chur University in Switzerland, Minube, Myclimate, PRMEDIACO and the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority in the United Arab Emirates.
On the occasion, UNWTO launched the Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals Programme as a legacy of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017. The Programme aims at advocating for the contribution of sustainable tourism´s to the 17 SDGs and encouraging the full integration of tourism and the SDGs in national, regional and global agendas. It includes the future ‘Tourism and SDGs’ online platform – a co-creation space to inspire and empower the tourism sector to act – developed by UNWTO with the support of SECO and an Ambassadors Initiative.
See the UNWTO’s full press release here.