www.world-tourism.org A successful Rural Tourism Forum took place in September in Guiyang, China. It was organised and sponsored by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the China National Tourism Administration, the World Bank, and the Provincial Government of Guizhou Province, and was attended by more that 200 tourist industry representatives and experts from 16 countries.
The Forum was preceded by a Technical Tour, which gave some of the foreign experts a taste of Guizhou Province’s extraordinary rural tourism product – a unique mix of spectacular, distinctive scenery and ethnic minority villages which have preserved their very rich cultural heritage of dance, song, costume, handcrafts and traditions.
A Forum Declaration was agreed and expert recommendations were formulated. These identified a major opportunity for Guizhou to further develop its rural tourism, but they also underlined the fragility of this unique culture and landscape. Mr. Francesco Frangialli, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization, emphasised the importance of conserving Guizhou’s heritage, noting that rural tourism should be fully implemented in the community, not only to create financial opportunities for local villagers but also to stimulate the overall economic and cultural development of rural areas.
A major theme at the Forum was the importance of local ownership and control, with fair distribution of profits and benefits. It was agreed that Village Tourism Associations have a key role to play in this and that local stakeholders should be fully involved in both planning and implementation. The experts stressed that, without the buy-in of village residents, rural tourism development cannot be successful or sustainable.
Other key themes of the conference were: the importance of local products and handcrafts; the need for training, communication, and quality product development; the role of Governments; and the evolving preferences of today’s tourists for more active, participatory, and authentic experiences.
Mr. Xu Jing, UNWTO’s Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, said: “Rural Tourism can build a mutually beneficial and very necessary bridge between cities and the countryside, offering much needed relaxation to city dwellers and clear tangible and intangible benefits to villagers”.
The experts agreed that rural tourism can make a major contribution to UNWTO’s key goal of poverty alleviation worldwide, and that it can especially help underprivileged sectors of society, for example women, the elderly, children and the disabled. |