Call for massive new travel and tourism re-education

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Lipman calls for more tourism education and a world environment university to drive green growth and heal travel and tourism weak and fragmented learning structures.

In a major speech at the World Environment Jeju Forum, professor Geoffrey Lipman supported Maurice Strong’s proposal for a World Environment University and called for massive commitment to tourism education to push the industry as a driver towards a new green economy.

Outlining the possibilities and using the term ‘travelism’ to incorporate the whole activity of travel and tourism, Lipman said:

“It can become an education focal point for academic, industry and government thought leaders committed to the mainstreaming of Travelism in Green Growth” “It can help to underpin the sector’s educational revamp – putting quadruple bottom line sustainability and smart travel into curricula at all levels” “It can spawn a network of networks in the education field, committed to realize this paradigm shift thinking through best practice learning techniques – with a strong emphasis on new media and mobile delivery.” “It can provide a useful reference base for the new mindset amongst the key international organizations involved inside Travelism, Environmentalism and Academia, from public, private and civil society sources"

Lipman also underlined the fact that, with effective retraining, tourism is capable of both helping to heal the global unemployment crisis – providing decent work and driving the revolutionary green economy.

He said: “There is of course the massive employment dimension: so important when unemployment is hovering around the 10% mark. Skills and re- training programs will be needed for existing workers to move them into emerging green growth jobs, which by definition will mean what ILO calls “decent work”.

“New workers can become tomorrow’s socio-environmental entrepreneurs. School leavers and graduates will become the green economy foot soldiers, generals and leaders in the next decades. Educational systems will shift to inject green growth as a priority criterion. And the emerging economies will leapfrog by capitalizing on their resurgence, their very lack of entrenched systems and their ability to retool early stage training and education programs using the massive power of ICT.” 

“There is also a huge opportunity to create innovative new structures in the rapidly evolving development, climate and trade response space. Consider, for example, in a time of widespread unemployment in OECD countries the potential to match computer literate graduate job seekers with developing states’ needs to bridge the digital divide and boost their Travelism structural underpinnings.”

"Voluntourism could also take advantage of the current employment situation: “A gap year of overseas voluntourism can give a practical fulfilling field experience to potentially disappointed job seeking graduates.  It would also be attractive for corporate social responsibility programs as well as public sector job creation schemes"

"Transport, hospitality and travel services have so far evolved in their own educational silos with differentiated quality and little connectivity. Most emphasis in this sector to date has been on vocational training and it’s a newish discipline in secondary and tertiary educational systems.  Geography and economics have been important surrogates for the former, with engineering, marketing, finance and general management for the latter.  Classic university disciplines are limited – despite the multiplication of hospitality colleges and faculties around the world in recent years."

The Honorable Maurice Strong , secretary general of the 1972 U.N. Conference on the Human Environment and the first executive director of the U.N. Environment Program plans facilitate the establishment of the World Environment University in Jeju.

Strong said the idea of a World Environment University was conceived several years ago and has involved extensive consultation with interested parties in the environmental, academic and policy fields. “There are many universities that have faculties or institutes of environment,” he said, “but there is not a world network to keep them together.” Having identified that need, he felt it was natural “at this late stage of my life” to help create such a network. 

“Helping to create the World Environment University is the best thing I can do to make sure that this work not only continues but that a new generation of leadership can be educated and trained to ensure that our earth can still be a habitable place,” he said.

He said Jeju is uniquely suited to host such a project. “When I say Jeju is very unique, I say it with knowledge of other unique and special places in the world,” he said. “It’s a number of things. One is the actual physical character of the island, which is very special, and its subtropical climate. Its location is a very big thing because it’s less than two hours from Beijing, from Seoul, from Osaka, from Tokyo – it is in the center of the biggest concentration of rural population. It is itself a living example of how to care for a very unique environment and the commitment of the self-government here, also supported by the commitment of the central government, is designed to make this a modern state but one which cares for its natural environment and is creating an example of how human beings can enhance that environment, rather than destroying it.”

The 2012 IUCN World Conservation Congress on Jeju would focus the attention of the world on the island, he said. That, combined with the World Environment University would make Jeju truly a world environment center – “the center of a global network. ”

Ministers Briefing special offer with introduction by G Lipman: HERE

Masterclass led by Lipman: HERE

Valere Tjolle

Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite – special offer www.travelmole.com/stories/1146486.php