Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 25-29 October
Geneva, 22 October 2010 -- A properly structured and well-organized tourist sector can have very positive financial and social knock-on effects, which is why more and more developing countries are trying to identify the best ways to boost sustainable tourism.
This is the aim of a seminar on sustainable tourism for development to be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 25 to 29 October for 26 high-ranking officials from the national tourist boards of the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The seminar is being organized jointly by the UNCTAD TrainForTrade programme and WAEMU, with financial support from the Greek Government.
The member States of WAEMU are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d´Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, the Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
The official opening of the seminar will be presided over by Ibrahim Tamponé, WAEMU Commissioner for Community Land Management, Transport and Tourism, and by Anne Miroux of UNCTAD´s Division on Technology and Logistics.
The seminar will take place a few days after a high-level meeting on sustainable tourism for the least developed countries organized by UNCTAD in Caen, France, which gave these countries a chance to say what their expectations are in terms of sustainable tourism and poverty reduction.
The TrainForTrade programme of UNCTAD´s Division on Technology and Logistics has been using its training know-how to define an integrated capacity-building process in the area of sustainable tourism since 2006. Its priority is to promote consistency between tourism-related strategies and policies and the decentralization of action plans and the corresponding resources at the local and regional level.
