Promotion of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism, Including Ecotourism, for Poverty Eradication and Environment Protection

A/RES/77/178View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 22Eradication of poverty and other development issues, published in 2022.

What other versions does this mandate have?

2 versions · 2022–2024

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/79/220

2024A/RES/79/220Promotion of sustainable and resilient tourism, including ecotourism, for poverty eradication and environment protectionLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/178Promotion of sustainable and resilient tourism, including ecotourism, for poverty eradication and environment protection

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Ecotourism Poverty Mitigation Sustainable Development Tourism Policy

What does this mandate say?

35 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the report of the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization transmitted by the Secretary-General of the United Nations;

Recognizes that sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, represents an important driver of sustainable, economic growth, social and cultural development, as well as decent job creation and entrepreneurship for all, which can have a positive impact on livelihoods, income generation and education, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status, and thus can contribute to the fight against poverty and hunger, and that it can contribute directly to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals;

Also recognizes the potential of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, in eradicating poverty by improving economic livelihoods in local communities, generating resources for community development programmes and projects and creating employment opportunities;

Encourages Member States, the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, the private sector and civil society, to place present and future generations’ well-being at the centre of the recovery, enhancing collaboration between key relevant stakeholders along the tourism value chain, with recovery actions to be aligned with the needs of people, the planet and prosperity to accelerate the transformation to a sustainable, low-carbon and socially inclusive tourism path;

Also encourages Member States, the international community and the private sector to support the creation of long-lasting synergies between public health and tourism, not only for the competitiveness of the tourism sector but also as a natural barrier for future pandemics;

Recognizes the importance of supportive fiscal measures for the protection and promotion of economic efficiency and employment in the sector, during and after the COVID-19 crisis, encompassing investment and finance measures, strengthening governance and administrative capacity, supporting decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation for all, which create new momentum for economic growth and expand opportunities, including for women and young people, harnessing digital technology, innovation fostering training and building human capacity, for the successful recovery and resilience of the tourism sector;

Emphasizes the need to optimize the economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits stemming from sustainable tourism, including ecotourism activities, in all countries, including African countries, the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, small island developing States and middle-income countries;

Also emphasizes that sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, can contribute to sustainable development, in particular to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources, and can improve the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including women and young people, and can create significant opportunities for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the protection of natural areas by encouraging Indigenous Peoples and local communities in host countries and tourists alike to preserve and respect the natural and cultural heritage;

Stresses that the cultures, traditions and knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, in all their aspects, including women and young people, are to be fully considered, respected and promoted, as appropriate, in policy development for sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, and underlines the importance of promoting their participation in decision-making and all tourism operations that affect them and the need to ensure their free, prior and informed consent in the integration of their knowledge, heritage and values into sustainable tourism, including ecotourism initiatives, as appropriate;

Notes that the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization, in his report, invites Member States, international agencies and other relevant organizations to mainstream biodiversity conservation in the tourism sector and in climate change plans and strategies, intertwining economic, social and cultural elements with climate change adaptation approaches and the preservation of relevant ecosystem services;

Underlines, in this regard, the importance of establishing, at the national level, where necessary, appropriate policies, guidelines, institutions and regulations, in accordance with national priorities and legislation, for promoting and supporting sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, and minimizing any potential negative impact;

Invites Member States to enhance institutional coherence policy that supports funding mechanisms and initiatives for poverty eradication programmes and projects, including initiatives from community-based organizations and micro- and small private sector entities;

Encourages Member States to use sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, as well as cultural and rural tourism, as a tool to foster sustained and inclusive economic growth, social development and financial inclusion and enable the formalization of the informal sector, the promotion of domestic resource mobilization and environmental protection and the eradication of poverty and hunger, including the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources and the promotion of investment and entrepreneurship in sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, in accordance with their national development policies and legislation, which may include promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and their resilience and formalization, promoting cooperatives and facilitating access to financing through inclusive financial services, including microcredit initiatives for the poor, women and young people, Indigenous Peoples, older persons, persons with disabilities and local communities in all areas, including rural areas;

Encourages the development of tourism infrastructure and the promotion of tourism diversification, including through public-private partnerships, as a way to foster job creation for local communities, the preservation of their way of life, culture and heritage and the promotion of the three dimensions of sustainable development, while simultaneously inviting Member States to take measures to protect the environment and the sociocultural heritage of a destination;

Encourages Governments, the United Nations and the specialized agencies to support the coordination of regional and/or international sustainable tourism development frameworks, as appropriate, in order to assist countries in promoting sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, for poverty eradication and environmental protection;

Underlines the importance of ensuring responsible resource management, addressing the negative impacts of unbalanced tourism, respecting environmental and sociocultural capacities and conducting an environmental impact assessment that does not present additional cost commitments, in accordance with national legislation, for the development of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism opportunities;

Stresses the need to ensure the integration of sustainable consumption and production patterns in the tourism sector, including through identifying and adopting tourism-planning approaches aimed at improving efficiency in the use of resources;

Encourages Member States and other stakeholders to make use of the “Tourism for SDGs platform” launched during the 2018 high-level political forum on sustainable development as a partnership tool aimed at advancing the sustainable development of tourism and its contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals;

Underlines the need to foster resilient tourism development to deal with shocks, taking into account the vulnerability of the tourism sector to emergencies, and invites Member States to develop national strategies for rehabilitation after shocks, including through private-public cooperation and the diversification of activities and products;

Emphasizes the need for effective measures, in the context of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism initiatives, to ensure the full empowerment of women, including the equal participation of women and men at all levels and in decision-making processes in all areas;

Also emphasizes the need for effective measures, in the context of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism initiatives, to help to ensure the equal participation of young people and women, persons with disabilities and older persons at all levels and in decision-making processes in all areas and to promote the effective economic empowerment, including through international cooperation, of women, young people, persons with disabilities and older persons in sustainable tourism, including ecotourism activities, mainly through decent job and income creation;

Calls upon the entities of the United Nations system, in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, to promote sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, as an instrument that can contribute to achieving those Goals, in particular when it comes to eradicating extreme poverty and ensuring environmental sustainability, and to support the efforts and policies of developing countries in this field;

Invites Member States and relevant stakeholders to welcome the many opportunities that the new digital transformation of the tourism sector offers, and calls upon them, therefore, to foster smart solutions that integrate knowledge from traditional and non-traditional data sources, supporting related capacity-building activities and ensuring the long-term participation of local communities and the overall strengthening of a more holistic, evidence-driven approach to sustainable development in tourism;

Calls upon the entities of the United Nations system to provide support to tourism stakeholders at all levels in their efforts to acquire and utilize the expertise needed for the digital transformation of their businesses and destinations and to support efforts to enhance the available data with georeferenced, spatial components for the generation of more precise and timely information for tourism;

Recognizes the importance of investment in education and training, focusing on issues specific to tourism, in order to enhance competitiveness, and encourages regional and international institutions to provide adequate support to programmes and projects related to sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, taking into account the economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits of such activities;

Invites relevant specialized agencies, in particular the World Tourism Organization, United Nations bodies and other organizations, to provide technical assistance to Member States, upon request, and to assist, as appropriate, in strengthening legislative or policy frameworks for sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, including those for environmental protection and the conservation of natural and cultural heritage;

Invites relevant specialized agencies, United Nations bodies, other organizations and multilateral financial institutions to provide technical assistance to Governments, upon request and as appropriate, in identifying needs as well as opportunities to improve the contribution of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, to poverty eradication, including through securing wider community benefits from sustainable tourism, including ecotourism activities, as a viable and sustainable economic development option;

Encourages the United Nations, the specialized agencies and other organizations, within existing mandates and resources, the public and private sectors and other relevant stakeholders to develop awareness-raising materials that target local development, the empowerment of women, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, youth entrepreneurship and innovation, and the protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions in order to ensure the sustainability of the tourism sector and its contribution to a country’s development objectives;

Invites relevant stakeholders to provide, upon request and as appropriate, technical assistance to assist in building the capacity, including for marketing and product positioning, of local communities, social and solidarity economy organizations and enterprises, including cooperatives and micro-, small and medium-sized businesses involved in sustainable tourism, including ecotourism activities;

Recognizes the role of North-South cooperation in promoting sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, as a means to achieve economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve living standards in developing countries, and also recognizes that South-South and triangular cooperation, as complements to North-South cooperation, have the potential to promote sustainable tourism, including ecotourism;

Invites Governments and other stakeholders to consider joining the framework of the International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories of the World Tourism Organization as a way to promote socioeconomic and environmentally sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, and to support better informed sustainable tourism policies around the world, mainly through the identification and dissemination of best practices and enhanced awareness of and capacity-building for sustainability among tourism stakeholders;

Calls for support and engagement from Member States, the United Nations system and other international and regional organizations, notably the World Tourism Organization, financial institutions, the private sector, civil society and all relevant stakeholders to ensure inclusive processes when devising recovery plans and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to promote sustainable tourism as an enabler of sustainable development for local communities and to cater to the needs of populations and businesses, notably to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, for which tourism represents the main source of income, so as to diversify their skills, customer base and revenue streams, including through sufficient investments in skills development and training programmes, access to science and technology, promoting the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and natural resources, to strengthen approaches that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, all of which have the potential to drive innovation in tourism towards sustainability and, besides mitigating its climate and environmental impacts, can result in sustainable management of scarce natural resources and fragile ecosystems, and calls upon all stakeholders to take into account that the resilience of tourism will depend on the sector’s ability to balance the needs of people and the planet for prosperity;

Acknowledges that addressing challenges, such as the strengthening of health and hygiene measures to boost the safety and confidence of travellers and enhancing safe cross-border travel, continues to be relevant, and calls for strengthening public awareness about the important role of sustainable and resilient tourism for a country’s sustainable development and the need to build more resilient and inclusive communities and businesses;

Encourages the holding of further high-level thematic events on tourism, to be convened, as in 2022, by the President of the General Assembly in cooperation with the World Tourism Organization, as a regular platform of consultation on tourism in the United Nations system, to build on the work already begun, with a view to advancing towards a concerted approach on tourism at the highest level and maximizing its contribution to the sustainability agenda;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly, at its seventy-ninth session, in collaboration with the World Tourism Organization and other relevant United Nations agencies and programmes, a report on the implementation of the present resolution, including recommendations on ways and means to promote sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, as a tool for fighting poverty and promoting sustainable development in its three dimensions – economic, social and environmental – in a balanced and integrated manner, taking into account relevant reports prepared by the World Tourism Organization in this field, unless otherwise agreed.

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