Global Summit on City Tourism

Global Summit on City Tourism

GLOBAL SUMMIT on CITY TOURISM: Catalysing economic development and social progress
14 – 16 November 2012
Haliç Congress Centre, Istanbul, Turkey


Organized by UNWTO
On the occasion of UNWTO Affiliate Members Plenary Session

In collaboration with:
Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey /
The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB)

 


Background and Objectives

  • Tourism has become an element that can make a significant contribution to the development and rejuvenation of cities given its cross-cutting impact on the society and its effects on the many facets of the economic, social, cultural and territorial city life.
  • If correctly planned, developed and efficiently managed, tourism can be a catalyst for a vigorous economic development and social progress in cities by re-building infrastructure, generating jobs and a skilled labour force, stimulating local business entrepreneurship, developing strong public/private partnerships, attracting other economic activities, creating distinctive local attractions, building a service-friendly culture and promoting these advantages effectively.
  • Tourism destinations tend to use “innovation” as a vehicle for developing new products, addressing niche markets and upgrading the quality of their services and improving their competitiveness. Within this context, the concept of “smart cities” has been a key to success for many city destinations.
  • Cities must have a clear vision in maximizing the economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability for their residents while delivering a quality visitor experience to their visitors. They also need to recognize the changing global context for tourism and set new challenges and priority areas for action and go forward.

The summit aims to:

  1. Bring together the UNWTO Affiliate Members and other relevant stakeholders from the private and public sectors, academia and destinations to create a platform for dialogue on the current and potential challenges and opportunities for cities,
  2. Enable participants to acquire an overview of the current and future strategies for cities and build synergies among all the stakeholders for a shared vision,
  3. Build together a set of general guidelines which, by including integrated and relevant content, can be used as a reference for action by world cities.

 

Conference Programme

Please find the conference programme here.

 

General Information

You can easily access all information regarding the conference venue, special offers by our official carrier Turkish Airlines, partner hotels and useful information for conference attendees by clicking here.

 

 

Documents

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