HALEIWA, Hawaii, USA; BRUSSELS, Belgium; VICTORIA, Seychelles; BALI, Indonesia – ICTP President Professor Geoffrey Lipman, together with colleagues from Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, and Oxford Brookes University, UK, published โGreen Growth and Travelism: Letters from Leaders,โ which was dedicated to Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the Rio Earth Summit and presented to him at Rio+20 earlier this year.
The lead authors identified โGreen Growthโ as the new geopolitical paradigm to respond to the big social, economic, environment, and climate challenges of today and the population-driven resource challenges of tomorrow. They:
โข Suggested how Travelism โ the Travel and Tourism value chain consisting of supply, demand, and the broader destination-focused economy they create โ might play a leading role in the transformation, because it delivers on jobs, trade, and development, as well as spreading happiness through human interaction.
โข Asked nearly 50 government, industry, and civil society thought leaders to give their views in a focused strategy-oriented way on the challenges and opportunities from the intersection of these evolving paradigms.
The result is a clear demonstration of the potential of the sector to make a seriously powerful contribution if it is sustainably managed.
ICTP intends to โblogโ one of these letters, every month as part of its โgreen and qualityโ commitment. The first is a thought-provoking piece by Tom Enders, CEO of EADS, the parent of Airbus, reflecting on the big finance and skills challenges facing the sector in the coming decades. Hereโs a sample: โBetween now and 2020, the worldโs airlines will spend the US$20 billion pay to comply with the EUโs Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). That would be enough to implement an upgraded European air traffic management system, which would cut emissions by 10%; to build enough biofuel refineries to meet the EUโs target of producing two million tons by 2020; to develop an entirely new aircraft model that would provide a significant step towards our target of halving aircraft emissions by 2050; and still have enough left over to educate about 20,000 engineers. Europe needs 12,000 aeronautical engineers a year, but only 9,000 graduate, and nearly half of them switch to other careers when they qualify. Itโs crazy.โ
Tomโs article, which was also carried as an op-ed in the โEuropean Voiceโ can be accessed at www.greengrowth2050.com . Comments are welcome.
Letters from Leaders is available from Amazon and on www.goodfellowpublishers.com .
ABOUT ICTP
The International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP) is a grassroots travel and tourism coalition of global destinations committed to quality service and green growth. ICTP engages communities and their stakeholders to share quality and green opportunities including tools and resources, access to funding, education, and marketing support. ICTP advocates sustainable aviation growth, streamlined travel formalities, and fair coherent taxation. ICTP supports the UN Millennium Development Goals, the UN World Tourism Organization’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, and a range of programs that underpin them. ICTP has destination members in Anguilla; Aruba; Australia; Bangladesh; Belgium, Belize; Brazil; Canada; Caribbean; China; Croatia; Cyrpus; Egypt; Ecuador; Egypt; (The) Gambia; Georgia; Germany; Ghana; Greece; Grenada; India; Indonesia; Iran; Jordan; Kenya; Korea (South); La Reunion (French Indian Ocean); Malaysia; Malawi; Mauritius; Mexico; Morocco; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Northern Mariana Islands (USA Pacific Island Territory); Romania; Sultanate of Oman; Pakistan; Palestine; Philippines; Portugal; Rwanda; Seychelles; Sierra Leone; South Africa; Sri Lanka; St. Eustatius (Dutch Caribbean); St. Kitts; St. Lucia; Sudan; Tajikistan; Tanzania; Trinidad & Tobago; Uganda; USA; Yemen; Zambia; and Zimbabwe.
For more information, go to: www.tourismpartners.org .