IIPT Founder Presented Visionary Award

First award made by by International Council of Tourism Partners

IIPT Founder and President Louis D‚Amore was presented the International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP) Visionary Award by ICTP President Geoffrey Lipman earlier this month at World Travel Market.

Mr. Lipman said: “I have known Louis for 30 years. He is a true visionary and works tirelessly to spread his vision around the world for peace through tourism. He is so richly deserving of this award”

Louis D’Amore has been instrumental in promoting the travel and tourism industry as the world’s first “Global Peace Industry” since the founding of IIPT in 1986. His concept of peace includes peace within ourselves, peace with our neighbors in the global village, peace with nature, peace with future past generations by honoring the legacies, customs and traditions passed down to us, peace with future generations through sustainable development, and peace with our Creator.

His pioneering initiatives began in the mid-1970’s with the world’s first comprehensive study on the future of tourism which was conducted by his consulting firm, L. J. D’Amore & Associates for the Federal Government of Canada. That study also introduced for the first time social and environmental factors in tourism.

He continued as a futurist to the travel and tourism industry in Canada through the mid-1980’s during which time trends were indicating global issues such as increased tensions between East and West; a growing gap between have and have not regions of the world; an increasingly deteriorating environment, depleting resources, and species extinction; the peaking of terrorism; and signs of climate change.

D’Amore was also forecasting that travel and tourism would become the world‚s largest industry by the year 2000. Given these global issues and the growing socio-economic importance of tourism ˆ he decided to transition his consulting firm into the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) with the aim of harnessing the global presence and power of the industry to be a force for a peaceful and sustainable world.

IIPT was born in 1986, the UN International Year of Peace with a vision of travel and tourism becoming the world‚s first global industry and the belief that every traveler is potentially an “Ambassador for Peace”

By 1988, the First Global Conference: Tourism ˆ A Vital Force for Peace was held in Vancouver with 800 delegates from 67 countries ˆ a conference that turned out to be a transformative event for the travel and tourism industry ˆ introducing a “Higher Purpose” of Tourism that includes the key role of travel and tourism in:

• Promoting international understanding and collaboration among peoples and nations
• Protecting the environment and preserving biodiversity
• Enhancing cultures and valuing heritage
• Sustainable development
• Poverty reduction, and
• Healing wounds of conflict through tourism, culture and sport.

This Higher Purpose‚ of tourism with its capacity to generate social, cultural, environmental, economic, and political benefits, is now broadly recognized and has gained acceptance at the highest levels.
The 1988 Global Conference introduced for the first time the concept of Sustainable Tourism Development ˆ and in 1992/93 following the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Summit), D’Amore developed the world’s first Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Sustainable Tourism for the Canadian tourism industry. He also conducted the world’s first international study on codes of conduct and best practice in Sustainable Tourism for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Since its founding in 1986, IIPT has organized conferences and summits in most regions of the world promoting and demonstrating the values of Peace and Sustainable Development through Tourism. The most recent conference in Lusaka, Zambia concluded with the Lusaka Declaration on Tourism and Climate Change. A book, Meeting the Challenges of Climate Change to Tourism, based on presentations from the conference and selected other authors, is about to be published. Its previous African Conference in Kampala, Uganda resulted in the world’s first tourism legislation in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The IIPT Credo of the Peaceful Traveler has been distributed to Travelers around the world.

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Get your copy at a special offer price: HERE