International
Cultural Tourism Committee
. Brief
Presentation to ICOMOS General Assembly
. 5 December 2002. Work
of the Committee 2002 - 2005
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It
was agreed that the work of the Committee over the next three years
should focus on the promotion of the Charter.
It was now three years since the Charter had been
approved in Mexico and it was time to ensure that it is as widely
known and used as possible.
It
was agreed that one of the important goals for the Committee was to
encourage implementation of the Charter as a basis for approval of
projects by government and funding resources, and as a basis for
consistent site evaluation and comparison of the relationship between
tourism and heritage places in different locations throughout the
world.
The
Committee discussed a number of particular initiatives that should now
be followed up:
In
order to promote its dissemination, Committee members are encouraged
translate the Charter into additional languages.
In recognition of the limitations of translating the document
verbatim into other languages, it was agreed that members should adopt
a degree of linguistic discretion to ensure that the translated
document reads well in the new language.
The
Committee will establish stronger relationships with other ICOMOS
International Scientific Committees in order to seek joint areas of
interest and joint activities. Mr
Brooks reported that he had initiated such discussions during the
Advisory Committee meeting in Seville, prior to the Madrid General
Assembly and had received strong support from a number of the other
Committee Chairmen. In
particular the Chairs of the Polar, Underwater Heritage, Recording and
Historic Towns Committees had responded very positively.
The Cultural Itineraries Committee had also responded well, and
was represented at this meeting by their Deputy Secretary General,
Todor Krestev.
Joint
ICOMOS – World Tourism Organization Meeting
The joint ICOMOS – World Tourism
Organization Meeting was held in Madrid, Spain on 4 December 2002.
The meeting was attended by WTO and ICOMOS representatives (mainly
members of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Cultural
Tourism).
Mr.
Francesco Frangialli, WTO Secretary-General, opened the meeting
welcoming the participants and presenting general data and trends on
tourism. He mentioned the
strong links between tourism and cultural heritage and, after a brief
presentation of the Organization, he highlighted the importance of the
collaboration between ICOMOS and WTO in these two fields.
Mr.
Jean-Louis Luxen, Secretary-General of ICOMOS, thanked WTO for hosting
this meeting. He made a
brief presentation of ICOMOS, which is composed of various scientific
committees, among which the Committee on Cultural Tourism.
He agreed with Mr. Frangialli’s statement on the links
between tourism and culture sectors and added, in this regard, that
WTO could help ICOMOS, among other tasks, to identify tourism actors
open to dialogue on cultural questions.
He recalled the previous collaboration between the two
organizations in preparing the publication “Tourism at World
Heritage Cultural Sites”.
The
ICOMOS International Cultural
Tourism Charter was presented by Mr. Graham Brooks, Chairman of
the Committee. The
original 1976 ICOMOS Tourism Charter was completely revised by the
Committee between 1996 and 1999 and endorsed by the ICOMOS General
Assembly in 1999. The new
Charter has seen the
relationships between tourism and cultural heritage managers change
from “conflict resolution” to “co-operation”.
It was further said that the new Charter
and the Global Code of Ethics
of WTO are perfectly compatible and complementary.
For many years, however, the tourism industry and cultural
heritage managers had been working on parallel paths and have rarely
worked closely together. It
was anticipated that this meeting would be the start of a closer
working relationship between our two sectors.
Mr
Frangialli raised the concern that many heritage assets, particularly
World Heritage sites, are facing increased pressure from tourism.
There is a real need to develop some guidelines and case
studies to improve the visitor experience at such sites.
Mr.
Eugenio Yunis, Chief of the Sustainable Development of Tourism Section
at WTO, reminded all participants that the WSSD Plan of Implementation
agreed upon in Johannesburg last September called for partnerships.
He said it would be a good opportunity for the two
organisations to establish a bridge between the two sectors they
represent: cultural heritage and tourism.
He pointed out that WTO has been asked by its Member States to
help them to deal with overcrowding in coastal tourism areas and the
result of this work, to be completed soon, could be adapted to
overcrowded cultural sites and historic towns.
Mr
Yunis presented a preliminary proposal that WTO had prepared on the
basis of the ICOMOS publication Heritage
at Risk 2001/2002, listing various cultural sites where a joint
plan of action could be established by the two organisations.
This list concerns essentially developing and transition
countries in order to contribute also to poverty alleviation. Mr. Yunis also suggested the need to deal with non-World
Heritage-listed cultural sites, often neglected by tourism and
therefore lacking in resources for their conservation.
Graham Brooks
Chairman
ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism
Committee
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