www.tehrantimes.com The United Nations World Tourism Organisation has expressed its appreciation to Iran which hosted the first International Tourism and Handcrafts Conference . Harry Hwang, Program Officer of UNWTO’s Department of Sustainable Tourism Development gave a short introduction to the subject, and then Indrasen Vencatachellum, UNESCO’s Director of Division of Arts, Crafts, and Designs delivered a speech in which he regarded the First International Conference on Tourism and Handicrafts as an unprecedented event and said, “We have not had such global discussion for many years. In fact, last time we had a similar conference was back in 1976.”
Speaking on “Crafts and Tourism: Problems and Prospects”, Vencatachellum said, “Since the tourism industry has developed during the past years, the world has now focused much on tourism and the important role it plays in the economy of the countries.
So this conference gives us a good opportunity to discuss the relation between the two key issues of handicrafts and tourism. Tourism is related to handicrafts as tourists buy souvenirs especially in the form of handicrafts to take to their countries.”
He also considered the purchasing of handicrafts by the tourists as a means in improving the economic status of the countries and added, “In developed countries, people are looking for human contact through traveling and most of them are interested in cultural tourism. The United Nations World Tourism Organization is also trying to promote tourism especially cultural tourism and ecotourism in today’s world.
The social, cultural, and economic aspects of handicrafts should be seriously considered by the governments and investment agencies. As the world economy grows, the role of handicrafts in the economy comes to the surface.”
Vencatachellum believed that lack of statistics about these two industries is responsible for many problems which stand in the way of handicrafts and limit the role they can play in promoting tourism. “In order to support handicrafts, preparing accurate statistics is necessary. Moreover, the role of handicrafts in the country’s economy system should be clearly defined,” he said adding that globalization is another factor responsible for the decrease in the quality of handicrafts since the mass production of handicrafts becomes more important than their qualitative aspects.
Dominique Bouchart, an expert in handicrafts development of UNWTO, was the other speaker. He delivered his speech in which he proposed a solution to the problems facing the handicrafts industry. He said that if countries design a standard questionnaire, they may learn about which handicrafts in their country are met with greater interests by the tourists, and so they can focus their production on some specific handicrafts to meet the demand of the tourists. “Preparing standard questionnaires will allow countries to fix objectives,” said Bouchart.
“The Successful Use of Handicrafts in Guizhou Province for Poverty Alleviation”, “Metal Working in Iran”, “Targeting Lifestyle Tourism: Paradigm Shift in Arts and Crafts” were other topics discussed
On the sideline of this conference and with the aim of highlighting the importance and variety of handicrafts in Iran, Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization invited Iranian artists to exhibit their works during the conference. These exhibitions included handicrafts and photo exhibition as well as a coin and traditional ornamentation gallery. | 
