London 2012 Olympic Peace through Tourism pace steps up LATEST UPDATE

Pace steps up with only 12 months to go: Gordon Sillence tells Vision

Gordon Sillence, coordinator of the London 2012 Olympic Peace Campaign, is looking ahead to a summer of action to lay the foundations for 16 days of global peace for the travel industry business  in 2012.

Said Gordon:  “After the International Peace through Tourism Conference in Africa, I went the UNWTO in Madrid, where we discussed a memorandum of understanding on working together towards the realisation of the UN/IOC-backed Olympic Truce for the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

“The support given by Dr Taleb Rifai Secretary General of UNWTO and his team is very encouraging, and I believe tourism stakeholders will have a key role to play in making this happen for real.”

However, even the tourism component of the Olympic Peace Campaign alone is ambitious – to ensure the peace is in place according to the traditional Olympic spirit of the Games, Gordon would like to see a global map of safe passage and peaceful destinations.

He has set up a mapping and monitoring system for the peace through tourism development process on the DestiNet Portal (http://destinet.eu/topics/sustainable-consumption-and-production/peace-through-tourism).

For 2012 the tourism component of the Campaign’s work programme includes:

• Producing a global map of of safe passage, safe and unsafe destinations during the time of the Olympics 
• Working within the UN structure to develop a coherent overview of UN peace process relevant to the Olympic Truce
• Helping to establish a list of global, sub-global, and national contacts who can facilitate support for the Olympic Truce
• Working specifically with national tourism offices, and national foreign affairs departments and the media to correlate conflict zones, unsafe passages, safe and unsafe destinations during the time of the Olympics
• Cooperating on the issue of promoting Peace through Tourism at large-scale events in the framework of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism
• Making press releases and media campaigns to promote the London 2012 Olympic Peace Campaign

The International Institute of Peace through Tourism recognised the London 2012 Olympic Peace Campaign and will be working with Gordon to help make this happen. Vision on Sustainable Tourism is already a partner in this monumental task, and Gordon invites all tourism stakeholders to play their part.

The Campaign is now ready to engage with the London Olympic Organisers to work with both bottom up and top down processes to make the peace happen.

August Update

To mark the one year to go countdown at the start of this August, rioting in London left a global message that shows just how much we need this peace in ourselves, between neighbours, communities and nations, which is the message of the London 2012 Olympic Peace Campaign. A meeting was to be held in London to bring a ‘coalition of the willing’ together to make this happen. But the coalition is late in forming, and now this meeting is likely to be September/October. Yet the Olympic clock ticks on, and the need is still to bring more stakeholders to the table and time-table concrete actions at upcoming events.

‘ We are all already very busy people, yet still the burden of making the peace real relies on us. The World Travel Market (November) in London will be one event where tourism stakeholders can see in situ what could be happening in August 2012, then ITB Berlin next Spring, where the VISTAs global award (Visions’ International Sustainable Tourism Award) will be made to that country working most on implementing the Olympic peace through tourism.. Importantly, we have the Rio +20 global gathering in June in Brazil next year. If we are to have any success at all in piecing together the global truce, the actions must be firmly in place by then in each country.’

The key could be the British Governments’ UN resolution, to be tabled this Autumn. The work programme should attempt to bring the resolution development process to a practical implementation programme that each Olympic participating country and UN Member State can execute, focused on the announcement by foreign ministers or equivalents that their country will support the truce.

A social networking means of monitoring the peace can also be put in place, in which during the year to go, individuals and organisations can offer themselves as peace promoters and monitors. These ‘Olympic Peace Athletes’ should be able to generate interest in their own more local geographical areas. On this front, Mr BKS Iyengar, voted one of the top 100 influential people on the planet, has given his support for the Campaign through my organisation of a ‘Yoga teachers for Olympic Peace ‘group to help spread the message.

‘I go to bed with the task of helping to establish a one minute global silence for Peace at the opening ceremony and the thoughts of how to realise the idea of bringing 40 teenagers from conflict zones around the world to the Games. I know a handful of ministers of tourism and organisations who have made offers of potential help, but it is not enough. Acutely aware of the importance of timely action as well as doing the right thing, I need help, for this the work load is meant for many, not one. I see the need for all peace organisations to focus on this Olympic opportunity, and work with tourism stakeholders to marshal financial and human resources to make this work’.

The London 2012 Olympic Peace through Tourism Campaign can be found on the DestiNet Portal site (http://destinet.eu/topics/sustainable-consumption-and-production/peace-through-tourism) or Gordon can be contacted on [email protected] or on Facebook and Linked in.

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Special Offers HERE