The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) will host its seventh Global Summit on Urban Tourism from September 16-19 in Seoul, South Korea. The summit aims to layout a vision looking to 2030 for this segment of the industry.
It is designed to encourage new approaches to the challenge the impact of tourism on urban destinations, through the sharing of innovative ideas and experiences. Other topics to be covered include approaching competitiveness in urban destinations, technology’s impact on urban tourism, rejuvenation of cities, and increasing inclusion of communities in city development.
Some of the speakers include Diana Robino, Global Tourism Partnerships Lead, MasterCard; Mizohata Hiroshi, President of Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau; Nico Mulder, Marketing Strategy Manager, Amsterdam Marketing; and Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism; who will speak on the panel discussion ‘Fair and Inclusive Tourism: Building cities for all’.
Duminy told Tourism Update that Cape Town Tourism had already implemented a number of initiatives to create inclusivity in the region. “From our perspective, as we seek to capitalise on tourism development opportunities, we’re cognisant of the need for parallel processes to take place that incorporate the principles of inclusive processes, to ensure that all locals have fair access to the market and that tourism development does not unfairly advantage one community over another.”
He explained that the city’s strategy for inclusivity was based on four pillars: buy-in and involvement from communities, cultural inclusivity, area-based support and product development, and creating opportunities for the youth.
He added that Cape Town Tourism was working to use the city’s multi-culturalism and variety of attractions on offer to develop the community through initiatives like skills development and providing networking opportunities “so that smaller businesses don’t have to operate in isolation, but they can collaborate with larger tourism enterprises”. “We are essentially an industry connector, and our goal is to foster tourism growth by cementing these kinds of partnerships, where operators can work together to create a more inclusive, and more exciting tourism offering for our visitors.”
