Tourism is widely recognised as an industry with huge potential for sustaining economic growth, promoting inclusive development and protecting the environment. To advance the power of tourism for sustainability, it is imperative for all tourism stakeholders to maximise tourism socio-economic contribution while minimising its negative impacts on the environment in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. This session will focus on how tourism could be a catalyst for positive change in terms of sustainable economic growth, social inclusiveness, employment and poverty reduction, resource efficiency, environment protection and climate change, cultural values, diversity and heritage and mutual understanding, peace and security. The role of technology in mainstreaming sustainability practices in tourism development will also be examined.
Speaker: Dr Luigi Cabrini, Chairman, Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Dr Cabrini is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and former Director of Sustainable Tourism at the UNWTO. He led several initiatives on sustainable tourism at global level, on tourism and climate change, tourism and biodiversity, observatories for sustainable tourism, the green economy, tourism and cultural heritage.
Panelists:
1.Dr Dirk Glaesser, Director of Sustainable Development of Tourism Programme, UNWTO Dr Glaesser obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Lüneburg, Germany and won the ITB scientific award for his work on Crisis Management. He is the author of a number of publications which have been widely translated. The Department for Sustainable Development of Tourism deals with the different challenges and opportunities of tourism development, among them environment and planning, investment and finance, risk and crisis management.
2.Mr Leighton Waterman, Programme Officer, SIDS Lighthouses Initiatives, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Mr Waterman has been working in the energy sector for over 20 years in various capacities. He is currently Programme Officer, SIDS Lighthouses with the International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA. He has managed various projects in the Caribbean in support of increasing the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency. 3. Professor Richard Butler, Professor Emeritus in Tourism, University of Strathclyde & Glasgow He is a past president of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, and UNWTO Ulysses Laureate (2016), and has published over twenty books and a hundred articles on tourism, with a focus on tourism development, sustainability and islands. His main areas of research are tourism destination development, seasonality and the sustainability of tourism.
Moderator: Dr Robin Nunkoo, Head of the International Centre for Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality, University of Mauritius Dr Nunkoo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management and the Head of the International Center for Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Mauritius; a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Management at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa; and an Adjunct Research Fellow at Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University.
