UN deal to promote tourism for LDC development
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The UNWTO has come together with seven UN other agencies and programmes to boost tourism as an instrument for development in world’s least developed countries (LDCs). According to the UNWTO, tourism has been identified by more than half of the world’s less developed countries (LDCs) as a means to reduce poverty. The partnership aims to maximise tourism’s role in helping countries reach their development goals.
The UN identified tourism as the first or second source of export earnings in 20 of the 48 LDCs, while recording growth in at least 10 others. In order to maximise this potential, UNWTO has come together with the International Labour Organization (ILO), International Trade Centre (ITC), UN Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD), UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), to create the new UN Steering Committee on Tourism for Development (SCTD).
One of the first activities of the Committee will be the holding a special tourism event at the Fourth UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC-IV) to be held in Istanbul on 10 May 2011. The event, ‘Promoting Tourism for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction’, will hope to provide a new international framework for development through tourism, providing the opportunity for LDCs, UN agencies, donor countries and other institutions to find ways to promote tourism for development in LDCs.
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