- Email: [email protected]
WTO general assembly
962
RESEARCH NOTES AND REPORTS
face when drafting a marketing strategy. Internal pressures include the need to generate foreign currency and to increase employment and income opportunities. External pressures are brought on by trade journalists who often portray areas and their people as exotic and living in paradise. Trade practitioners pick up on these images when marketing the destination to their clients. Because of these pressures destination marketing is often geared toward a mass market when the country or its people would be better suited to a go slow and build capacity approach. Another discussion focused on whether the type of strategy generally agreed upon is counterproductive to a sustainable development approach. No consensus could be reached on this question due to the variable nature of the tourism indusFor example some countries may have already try in different countries. reached an over capacity condition yet others have very little pleasure tourism at the moment. Discussion was also polarized on trying to define the concept of sustainable development (tourism) and whether or not it is compatible with different political systems. Next year’s conference will be held in Hamilton, Bermuda on 17-2 1 July. One of its tracks will focus on tourism-related issues. For more information about the organization, its future activities, and this year’s conference proceedings, please contact International Management Development Association, 1201 Stonegate Road, Hummelstown PA 17036, USA. 0 0
Submitted I.5 Novernbrr 1995 Accepted 20 January 1996
WTO General Assembly Scott Wayne World
Tourism
University
Organization,
Spain
Jafar Jafari
of Wisconsin-Stout,
USA
The World Tourism Organization (WTO), a United Nations’ executing agency, held its 11 th General Assembly on 17-22 October 1995, in Cairo, Egypt. This biennial meeting set a new attendance record with participation by nearly 700 delegates from 120 countries, including 101 ministers or deputy ministers and dozens of national and international journalists who covered this major intergovernmental meeting. Because of these high-level delegations from so many countries, WTO’s Secretary General, Antonio Enriquez Savignac, viewed this meeting as a “World Tourism Summit”. This distinction, among other things, was considered a telling sign of the growing significance of tourism worldwide and the pronounced importance that governments at all levels assign to its planning and development. The Assembly was opened by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who underlined the link between tourism and peace. He regarded this social phenomenon as an agent for reinforcement of both understanding and peace among peoples and nations of today’s global community. The
RESEARCH
NOTES AND REPORTS
963
Egyptian Minister of Tourism, who presided over this 5-day meeting, noted that tourism is a major export earner for this country and an important job-generating industry, with a multiplier effect that allows its economic benefits to penetrate many strata of the society. The Secretary General of WTO, on the first day and throughout the week, stressed the importance of tourism globally, noted its present magnitude, commented on its steady growth during recent years, recognized many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, emphasized the central role that governments should play in tourism planning and development, and outlined various operational actfvities of this Madrid-based organization since its last biennial meeting held in Indonesia. Heads of delegations from a number of developed and developing countries also took the podium and spoke on tourism in general terms and offered insights specific to their respective countries. Beyond the opening ceremonies and remarks, the delegates were fully occupied with many executive meetings and sessions throughout the Assembly. Most of the meetings dealt with administrative and budgetary issues. For example, delegates approved WTO’s new 2-year, zero-growth US9618 million budget for 1996-97, which allowed members’ contributions to remain at the 1995 level. The Assembly also discussed and approved the following countries as new Full Members: Andorra, Botswana, Central African Republic, Costa Rica (which was readmitted after an absence of several years), Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Myanmar, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In addition, 94 new Affiliate Members, representing all tourism sectors as well as several universities worldwide, were admitted. Also approved was a program of work that advances WTO’s six “Fields of Activity”: Cooperation and Development; Communications and Documentation; Education and Training; Environment Planning and Financing; Quality of Tourism Development; and Statistics and Market Research. Some of the new operational foci approved by the Assembly included greater attention to the study and practice of ecotourism and to the development of means for electronic distribution of WTO information and documentation. Continuing with an innovative program introduced first in Argentina during the 1991 General Assembly, the 1995 Assembly featured several roundtable or seminar sessions, each half-a-day or full-day, on five key tourism issues: New Marketing Opportunities; Global Distribution Systems; Public-Private Partnerships; Media Relations; and Quality as the Key to Success in International Tourism. For example, presentations given during the full-day seminar on Global Distribution Systems, sponsored by WTO’s Affiliate Members, noted that future travel catalogs will be electronic; that government tourism bodies will be transmitting large amounts of information directly to their potential tourists; that the role of travel agents in this age of electronic technology will be changing; and more. WTO and Routledge are co-publishing a study related to this roundtable that will provide a historical overview of global distribution systems, as well as forecasts of the impacts on tourism trends. Both the study and the roundtable are the first of what WTO hopes will be a series of ongoing activities to bring governments and the industry together in fully articulating the benefits of new technologies and applications for tourism. As an example of roundtable discussions, a panel of experts from both the industry and the education community brought several perspectives on quality tourism product to the forefront. After the broader issues relating to quality tourism production and delivery were introduced, speakers
RESEARCH
964
NOTES
AND REPORTS
described attempts by the hotel, airline, and travel agency sectors to improve their delivery of quality products, as well as how destinations and educational institutions can help set the stage for this new focus. In all, the presentations revealed that quality has a manufacturing-based rather than a service-based definition and that it takes special adjustments to apply the concept to service products such as those of tourism; that some of the old paradigms on quality do not apply to tourism; that, nevertheless, quality will continue to play a central role in the “New Age of Tourism”; that quality cannot be taken for granted; that standardization of tourism products would be extremely difficult; that a fundamental problem lies in the lack of Standard Industrial Classification codes applicable to tourism; that good service is when the provider meets or exceeds the tourist’s expectations; that quality is in the eyes of beholder and is evaluated subjectively; and that both the industry and tourism education community need to join forces to address the still-sketchy dimensions of quality in tourism and to train the future workforce with the concept of quality well-instilled in their systems of thinking and practice. This year’s Assembly also featured two unique seminars. One was “The Silk Road Project”, a joint WTO and UNESCO undertaking. This project involving 22 countries from Asia and Europe aims to develop tourism along the ancient Silk Road used by Marco Polo and the generations of traders who followed him. The project is intended to “promote not only the heritage and monuments of these regions, but also the living cultural according to UNESCO’s Director of heritage of music, art, and folklore”, Intercultural Projects. The second seminar was “The Slave Road Project”, a cultural tourism undertaking that deals with African countries and the whole continent as “touched in some way by the slave trade”, noted the seminar chairperson. This project, also being developed in cooperation with UNESCO, is aimed at rehabilitating places in Africa related to the historic slave trade as a way to provide visitors and others a retrospective view of the heritage of the region and to give some additional insights into “the slave trade...[by showing] what took place and where it took place”, the chairperson envisioned. Countries interested in the Slave Route agreed to begin making a systematic inventory of sites and monuments relating to this project. A declaration on the “Prevention of Organized Sex Tourism” was also adopted 9 delegates at the closing session. It condemned sex tourism “as exploitative and subversive to the basic aims of tourism”. The declaration called on governments to enact measures to combat this practice and urged both the tourism industry and tourists to become more aware of the consequences of this social problem, particularly child prostitution and AIDS. Finally, the General Assembly accepted a bid by Turkey to host the next biennial WTO meeting in Istanbul in October 1997. As in the past, between the biennial General Assemblies will come many meetings conducted by WTO’s regional committees, specialized task forces, budgetary and administrative committees, as well as thematic conferences, educational and training seminars, and more, held either at its headquarters in Madrid or in several of its 133 Full Member countries and territories. [7 0 Scott Wayne.. World TourOm [email protected].
Submitted Accepted
Organization.
15 December 399.5 1996
3 1January
Capitan
Haya $2, 28020 Madrid,
Spain.
Email
RESEARCH NOTES AND REPORTS
face when drafting a marketing strategy. Internal pressures include the need to generate foreign currency and to increase employment and income opportunities. External pressures are brought on by trade journalists who often portray areas and their people as exotic and living in paradise. Trade practitioners pick up on these images when marketing the destination to their clients. Because of these pressures destination marketing is often geared toward a mass market when the country or its people would be better suited to a go slow and build capacity approach. Another discussion focused on whether the type of strategy generally agreed upon is counterproductive to a sustainable development approach. No consensus could be reached on this question due to the variable nature of the tourism indusFor example some countries may have already try in different countries. reached an over capacity condition yet others have very little pleasure tourism at the moment. Discussion was also polarized on trying to define the concept of sustainable development (tourism) and whether or not it is compatible with different political systems. Next year’s conference will be held in Hamilton, Bermuda on 17-2 1 July. One of its tracks will focus on tourism-related issues. For more information about the organization, its future activities, and this year’s conference proceedings, please contact International Management Development Association, 1201 Stonegate Road, Hummelstown PA 17036, USA. 0 0
Submitted I.5 Novernbrr 1995 Accepted 20 January 1996
WTO General Assembly Scott Wayne World
Tourism
University
Organization,
Spain
Jafar Jafari
of Wisconsin-Stout,
USA
The World Tourism Organization (WTO), a United Nations’ executing agency, held its 11 th General Assembly on 17-22 October 1995, in Cairo, Egypt. This biennial meeting set a new attendance record with participation by nearly 700 delegates from 120 countries, including 101 ministers or deputy ministers and dozens of national and international journalists who covered this major intergovernmental meeting. Because of these high-level delegations from so many countries, WTO’s Secretary General, Antonio Enriquez Savignac, viewed this meeting as a “World Tourism Summit”. This distinction, among other things, was considered a telling sign of the growing significance of tourism worldwide and the pronounced importance that governments at all levels assign to its planning and development. The Assembly was opened by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who underlined the link between tourism and peace. He regarded this social phenomenon as an agent for reinforcement of both understanding and peace among peoples and nations of today’s global community. The
RESEARCH
NOTES AND REPORTS
963
Egyptian Minister of Tourism, who presided over this 5-day meeting, noted that tourism is a major export earner for this country and an important job-generating industry, with a multiplier effect that allows its economic benefits to penetrate many strata of the society. The Secretary General of WTO, on the first day and throughout the week, stressed the importance of tourism globally, noted its present magnitude, commented on its steady growth during recent years, recognized many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, emphasized the central role that governments should play in tourism planning and development, and outlined various operational actfvities of this Madrid-based organization since its last biennial meeting held in Indonesia. Heads of delegations from a number of developed and developing countries also took the podium and spoke on tourism in general terms and offered insights specific to their respective countries. Beyond the opening ceremonies and remarks, the delegates were fully occupied with many executive meetings and sessions throughout the Assembly. Most of the meetings dealt with administrative and budgetary issues. For example, delegates approved WTO’s new 2-year, zero-growth US9618 million budget for 1996-97, which allowed members’ contributions to remain at the 1995 level. The Assembly also discussed and approved the following countries as new Full Members: Andorra, Botswana, Central African Republic, Costa Rica (which was readmitted after an absence of several years), Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Myanmar, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In addition, 94 new Affiliate Members, representing all tourism sectors as well as several universities worldwide, were admitted. Also approved was a program of work that advances WTO’s six “Fields of Activity”: Cooperation and Development; Communications and Documentation; Education and Training; Environment Planning and Financing; Quality of Tourism Development; and Statistics and Market Research. Some of the new operational foci approved by the Assembly included greater attention to the study and practice of ecotourism and to the development of means for electronic distribution of WTO information and documentation. Continuing with an innovative program introduced first in Argentina during the 1991 General Assembly, the 1995 Assembly featured several roundtable or seminar sessions, each half-a-day or full-day, on five key tourism issues: New Marketing Opportunities; Global Distribution Systems; Public-Private Partnerships; Media Relations; and Quality as the Key to Success in International Tourism. For example, presentations given during the full-day seminar on Global Distribution Systems, sponsored by WTO’s Affiliate Members, noted that future travel catalogs will be electronic; that government tourism bodies will be transmitting large amounts of information directly to their potential tourists; that the role of travel agents in this age of electronic technology will be changing; and more. WTO and Routledge are co-publishing a study related to this roundtable that will provide a historical overview of global distribution systems, as well as forecasts of the impacts on tourism trends. Both the study and the roundtable are the first of what WTO hopes will be a series of ongoing activities to bring governments and the industry together in fully articulating the benefits of new technologies and applications for tourism. As an example of roundtable discussions, a panel of experts from both the industry and the education community brought several perspectives on quality tourism product to the forefront. After the broader issues relating to quality tourism production and delivery were introduced, speakers
RESEARCH
964
NOTES
AND REPORTS
described attempts by the hotel, airline, and travel agency sectors to improve their delivery of quality products, as well as how destinations and educational institutions can help set the stage for this new focus. In all, the presentations revealed that quality has a manufacturing-based rather than a service-based definition and that it takes special adjustments to apply the concept to service products such as those of tourism; that some of the old paradigms on quality do not apply to tourism; that, nevertheless, quality will continue to play a central role in the “New Age of Tourism”; that quality cannot be taken for granted; that standardization of tourism products would be extremely difficult; that a fundamental problem lies in the lack of Standard Industrial Classification codes applicable to tourism; that good service is when the provider meets or exceeds the tourist’s expectations; that quality is in the eyes of beholder and is evaluated subjectively; and that both the industry and tourism education community need to join forces to address the still-sketchy dimensions of quality in tourism and to train the future workforce with the concept of quality well-instilled in their systems of thinking and practice. This year’s Assembly also featured two unique seminars. One was “The Silk Road Project”, a joint WTO and UNESCO undertaking. This project involving 22 countries from Asia and Europe aims to develop tourism along the ancient Silk Road used by Marco Polo and the generations of traders who followed him. The project is intended to “promote not only the heritage and monuments of these regions, but also the living cultural according to UNESCO’s Director of heritage of music, art, and folklore”, Intercultural Projects. The second seminar was “The Slave Road Project”, a cultural tourism undertaking that deals with African countries and the whole continent as “touched in some way by the slave trade”, noted the seminar chairperson. This project, also being developed in cooperation with UNESCO, is aimed at rehabilitating places in Africa related to the historic slave trade as a way to provide visitors and others a retrospective view of the heritage of the region and to give some additional insights into “the slave trade...[by showing] what took place and where it took place”, the chairperson envisioned. Countries interested in the Slave Route agreed to begin making a systematic inventory of sites and monuments relating to this project. A declaration on the “Prevention of Organized Sex Tourism” was also adopted 9 delegates at the closing session. It condemned sex tourism “as exploitative and subversive to the basic aims of tourism”. The declaration called on governments to enact measures to combat this practice and urged both the tourism industry and tourists to become more aware of the consequences of this social problem, particularly child prostitution and AIDS. Finally, the General Assembly accepted a bid by Turkey to host the next biennial WTO meeting in Istanbul in October 1997. As in the past, between the biennial General Assemblies will come many meetings conducted by WTO’s regional committees, specialized task forces, budgetary and administrative committees, as well as thematic conferences, educational and training seminars, and more, held either at its headquarters in Madrid or in several of its 133 Full Member countries and territories. [7 0 Scott Wayne.. World TourOm [email protected].
Submitted Accepted
Organization.
15 December 399.5 1996
3 1January
Capitan
Haya $2, 28020 Madrid,
Spain.