This initiative was launched by Luigi Cabrini, Director of UNWTO Sustainable Tourism Development Programme; Jacqueline Arzoz, Deputy Secretary of Tourism Planning of Mexico; Mauricio Salmon, Secretary of Tourism of the State of Queretaro, and Arik Starolposky, Director General of the Centre Tourism Studies in Mexico.

 

The course was attended by more than 40 officials from national, regional and / or local governments as well as from the private sector from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala.

 

The objectives of this initiative, led by experts Luigi Cabrini, Humberto Rivas, Alvaro Moreno and María Nelly Rivas, specializing in Sustainability, Planning, Climate Change and Poverty Reduction, were met by their interactive and practical presentations on policies and practical tools for sustainable tourism promoted by UNWTO, the UNWTO work in relation to the millennium goals, the potential of tourism to contribute to poverty alleviation and implementation of policies and strategies for sustainable tourism and poverty alleviation countries in the region.

 

Participants went to the Biosphere Reserve Sierra Gorda, and particularly in Jalpan, to gather information and interview the various Tourism stakeholders from the private, public, and third sectors, for the practical activity of the course.

 

The closing ceremony was attended by Arik Starolposky, Director General of the Centre for Tourism Studies, Ligia Beatriz Zarate, Head of Promotion of OCC, and Sonia Figueras, UNWTO.Capacity Programme manager from the UNWTO.Themis Foundation.