Silk road success flavours ITB

UNWTO/Silk Road Tour Operators Forum (picture Dagmar Schrieber)

UNWTO brings together Tripadvisor, top hotel school, UNESCO, EU new initiatives

Tourism ministers enthusiastic about sustainable tourism, regional economic growth, food culture and tourism at Silk Road meeting

Delegations from 26 Silk Road countries packed into the UNWTO Silk Road Ministers Meeting as new Silk Road initiatives were announced by a top hotel school, the European Union, Tripadvisor and UNESCO.

The UNWTO really took off at ITB this year. After 20 years of steady growth, it appears that a watershed has been reached as more countries and major organizations announce their involvement in the project new initiatives unveiled.

At a packed ministerial meeting, the Silk Road Action plan 2011/2015 was unveiled by Alla Peressolova of UNWTO, who also announced this year’s major Silk Road event – ‘Flavours of the Silk Road’ international conference on food, culture and tourism at Baku Azerbajan in September.

In his keynote speech, EU Director of Enterprise and Industry, Pedro Ortun announced that the European Union was supporting its own route format, now in its second phase, with two sets of 5 transnational cultural products. He pointed out the challenges and opportunities for co-operation of network branding, governance and SME development. Routes supported by the EU this year will include the Danube Hike and European Greenways.

Peter deBrine emphasised UNESCO’s commitment to the concept, announcing trainings in Bishkek and Tashkent related to the development of transnational heritage corridors.

Youth involvement was emphasized by Demian Hodari, Professor of Strategic Management at Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne who will be providing 200 of this years students to run projects on the Silk Road.

Finally, Tripadvisor announced a major marketing mapping initiative covering all of the Silk Road and with opportunities to expose the regions tourism products to their 51 million monthly unique users.

UNWTO Delegation at Azerbajan stand – promoting the Baku event

The meeting was followed by a ‘Flavours of the Silk Road" walk when the UNWTO Secretary General, the Silk Road team and other conference delegates visited Silk Road stands at ITB to taste regional foods and promote the autumn ‘Flavours of the Silk Road’ Baku international conference.

The following day’s Silk Road Tour Operators Forum saw practical tourism entrepreneurs both from the destinations and from outbound markets cooperating to develop and market products.

The forum heard from Andreas Museler of the European Tour Operator’s Initiative and from Fattokh Nabievich Faizullaev, chairman of the newly-instituted Central Asia Tour Operators initiative.

An outline of the practical challenges faced was delivered by Farkhad Rasulev of Dolores Travel who emphasized the massive limitations of individual visa regimes and the opportunities provided by land transportation to see a real treasure-chest of tourism attractions.

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2012 Special Offers HERE