On 2-5 March 2009, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Conference on Increasing Tourist Flows Between Asia and the Middle East, and the 21st Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for South Asia and the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific were held in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.

Given our global partnership with the UNWTO in relation to the ST-EP program, as well as our reputation as a leading organisation in the field of pro-poor sustainable tourism development, SNV was invited to attend this conference and meeting.

According to Dr Taleb Rifai (Acting Secretary General, UNWTO) in his opening remarks, the conference and meeting were taking place at a very special time due to the predominance of talk about crises globally. He stressed that while the global economic crisis is dominating thinking, it is not the only crisis; food, energy and environment are also crisis issues.  He added that the only certainty is uncertainty but the idea of resilience is synonymous with the tourism industry.

The conference program included speakers from UNWTO, Travel Impact Newswire (Thailand), Market Vision Research and Consulting Services (United Arab Emirates), Etihad Airways (United Arab Emirates), Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Ziggurat Tour and Travel Company (I.R. Iran), as well as representatives from tourism ministries and departments in various countries including Maldives, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, I.R. Iran, Thailand, China and South Korea.

The conference was mainly focused on increasing tourist flows from the Middle East to Asia (rather than vice versa) and Malaysia was presented as a successful case-study example of how to tap the Middle East as a source market. Similarly, South Korea provided examples of what it is planning to do in order to increase visitor arrivals from the Middle East.

In boosting sustainable tourism flows within the regions, Dr H Ruhi Yaman, Visiting Associate Professer in the School of Tourism and Hotel Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University highlighted that there is very little being written by academics about tourism between Asia and the Middle East. Most tourism research, which is dominated by English-speaking academics, is a one-sided view of the impact of global tourism on local environments and authentic destinations. Furthermore, he stated that Asian destinations are redefining themselves to meet the needs of Middle-Eastern markets, with the three main motivators for tourism being religion/culture, medical travel and trade.  He stressed the need to understand the customers and to become immersed in the culture of the targeted segments. Empathy is the key. 

The joint meeting of the two commissions focused on market trends for 2008 and prospects for 2009, including a short presentation on global economic imbalances and tourism growth (how tourism can face the new risks and uncertainties). The next joint meeting of the two commissions will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam in June 2010.

For more information, please contact Tony Donovan , Senior Adviser/Sector Leader, Pro-Poor Sustainable Tourism, SNV Lao PDR.