7th WTTC summit meeting ends with agreement on sustainable tourism

The 7th Global Travel and Tourism Summit concluded here on Saturday, with commitments to achieve sustainability in the travel and tourism industry worldwide.

Addressing the closing session of the summit, President of the Republic of Portugal Anibal Cavaco Silva said: "The benefits that the tourism industry brings to the national economy cannot be neglected. It boosts the economic growth of advanced countries by 3 percent, and emerging markets like China by 7 percent. The tourism industry, a way to boost understandings among the public, can build up the relations between nations."

"The industry serves as a powerful engine, boosting the sound development of local economy. In the meantime, we should achieve sustainability in the high-quality and fruitful tourism, contributing to the economic development of the whole world," President Silva said.

High-ranking government officials and chief executives from across the world addressed a crowd of some 500 participants and shared their views on the issues and challenges facing the industry today and in the future at the two-day summit.

Participating representatives had a discussion about the impact of tourism and tourism-related industries on the environment and its solutions. Some participants pointed out that the tourism companies, airlines and tourists should act in an environmentally-friendly way to eliminate the negative impact on climate change and global warming and achieve the sustainability in the industry.

During the summit, the WTTC announced The 2007 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, which represent the highest accolade for best practice in travel and tourism development and are known as the "Oscars" of travel and tourism industry. It is handed out annually in four different categories, which are Destination Award, Conservation Award, Investor in People Award and Global Tourism Business Award.

After rigorous evaluation by an international committee of tourism experts, the Destination Award was rewarded to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Conservation Award to U.S. Aspen Skiing Company, Investor in People Award to Indonesia's Nihiwatu Resort, and Global Tourism Business Award to U.S. Lindblad Expeditions.

The 2009 Summit will be held in Beijing hopefully, a WTTC source said.

WTTC, the nonprofit group, is the forum for business leaders in the travel and tourism industry, with chief executives of some one hundred of the world's leading travel and tourism companies as its members. It was established in 1999 and hosted 6 global summits since 2000.

WTTC works to raise awareness of travel and tourism as one of the world's largest industries, employing approximately 230 million people and generating over 10 percent of world GDP.

Washington hosted the 6th Global Travel and Tourism Summit in 2006 under the theme Open Mind-Open World, and had 700 delegates attending.

Source: Xinhua