To promote commitments at both regional and national levels in advancing sustainable tourism development, for the first time, Bhutan is hosting the 31st Joint meeting of UNWTO Commission for East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific. More than a hundred international participants from 29 countries are participating in the conference that began yesterday.
UNWTO is a United Nations World Tourism Organization responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.
Speaking at the conference, the panellists discussed the importance of promoting tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability. Many participating countries shared that tourism should benefit both entrepreneurs and people in the community.
“To share with regard to Bhutan’s experience, politically I think we have been doing very well. On the policy, Bhutan has this High Value, Low Volume. And the third is a partnership which is something that even from Bhutanese experience, that we really need to work on. We may have the political will, we may have a policy but if we don’t have a partnership among all the stakeholders then we would be struggling,” Dorji Dhradhul, the Director General of Tourism Council of Bhutan, said.
“Finally even if all these three Ps are successful but if the last one, the people, if they are not taken on board, if their participation is not there then I think we would fail in this agenda for sustainability.”
He added that the tourism council has developed a Gross National Happiness certification for businesses in the tourism sector.
“I was proposing even the hotels, the tour operators and various businesses that are linked with tourism can be GNH certified. GNH certified means basically the components and its elements will be quite similar to green certification in which it will basically lead to sustainable development.”
The conference will provide recommendations to the member states on strengthening their approach to achieving sustainability in tourism.
