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Euro-Asian Mountain Tourism conference in Germany

12.03.2019

The 4th edition of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Euro-Asian Mountain Tourism Conference highlighted the need for collective efforts in overcoming current challenges that mountain destinations are facing to adapt to new consumer trends and market changes, to address seasonality by diversifying tourism products in an innovative manner while protecting natural and cultural resources.

Organized jointly with the Berchtesgadener Land Region, with the support of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the UNWTO Euro-Asian Mountain Tourism Conference brought together more than 270 participants from 30 countries.

Opening the event, UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili, recalled that mountains entail many opportunities to promote inclusion, regional development and better lives through tourism. He also stressed that mountain tourism needs to be planned, developed, governed and managed in a sustainable manner.

Speaking at the session dedicated to Mountain Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals, Sara Manuelli, advocacy and outreach officer of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, highlighted how sustainable mountain tourism should cut across all the SDGs and develop local economies and provide livelihoods to mountain communities.  She reminded the audience that mountain peoples are often left behind, with one in three in developing countries suffering from food insecurity.  

Conducted by the Editor in Chief of National Geographic Germany, Jens Schröder, the conference combined a series of six panel debates and four lectures steered by 16 international speakers from Europe and Asia. Sustainability, digitalization and mobility, the diversification of mountain destinations in segments such as culture, health and sports and the pressing need of investments for sustainable infrastructure and innovation in product and marketing, were the main issues discussed at the conference.

All these themes will be taken forward to the next World Congress on Snow and Mountain Tourism in 2020, bi-annually held in Andorra.

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Programme of the conference

Conclusions and presentations

Photo by UNWTO