Visitstmaarten.com Blog

As the world comes together to celebrate 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced that the World Tourism Day (WTD) celebrations, hosted officially this year by China, will take place under the theme Tourism and Biodiversity (27 September, Guangdong Province).

The theme provides a unique opportunity to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity to tourism and the role of sustainable tourism in the conservation of life on Earth.

The UNWTO said biodiversity is a key tourism asset and fundamental to its sustained growth. “Intact and healthy ecosystems form the cornerstone of thousands of tourist enterprises and products worldwide, attracting hundreds of millions of tourists each year.

The theme Tourism and Biodiversity is particularly pertinent in 2010. Concerned by the continued loss of biological diversity, the United Nations Assembly declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. The year coincides with the target adopted by governments in 2002 to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010.

Central WTD celebrations will take place in Guangdong Province, China. Alongside a series of cultural events organized by the Chinese Government, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) will host the 2010 World Tourism Day Think Tank around this year’s theme.

The Think Tank will bring together leading public and private tourism stakeholders, as well as biodiversity experts and members of the media, to highlight the close relationship between tourism and biodiversity, and identify how tourism can contribute to preserving life on Earth and its unique biodiversity.

“Excerpts from this article taken from the Daily Herald”

Go to our website www.visitstmaarten.com for more information

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 7:17 pm and is filed under Recent News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.