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China, UNESCO and EU conference on World Heritage and sustainable development

Date:2018-10-24

UNESCO will host a EU-China High Level Conferece on World Heritage and SUstainable Tourism at the Organization's Headquarters to examine the leading role that tourism and culture can play in fostering sustainable development in the EU and China on 29 October (Room IV, 9:30 am to 5 pm).

Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European Commissioner, Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Mr Qu Xing, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO, will open the event, which is organized within the framework of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year.

It will feature three panels:

  • Tourism Marketing in China and in the EU – changing how people experience World Heritage destinations,
  • Understanding Cultural Travellers – China-EU flows,
  • EU-China Tourism and Cultural Collaboration

The event will explore new models for collaboration between the Europan Union and China with a focus on World Heritage. It will showcase the World Heritage Journeys in the EU project, which is co-funded by the EU, UNESCO and National Geographic and offers the first ever wen platform for World Heritage andd Sustainable Travel. The project demonstrates how the establishment of trans-regional itineraries can improve the visibility of World Heritage sites' offer to tourists. 

Other practical innovations in terms of an integrated approach to sustainable tourism development and joint governance of routes between World Heritage sites will be presented. Participants will also look at how EU and China’s World Heritage sites are leveraging sustainable tourism to enhance conservation, growth and wellbeing for local communities.

Keynote speakers and panellists will include: Ernesto Ottone Ramírez , UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture, Eric Philippart, the European Commission’s Special Counsellor Responsible for 2018 EU-China Tourism Year, Mu Yuwei, Director of China National Office of Tourism in Paris, Xiao Shizhen, Government Advisor on World Heritage Management and Associate Professor at Guizhou Normal University (China), Zhang Guangwei, Director, Cultural Heritage Conservation Centre of Beijing Guowenyan, Annabelle Canwell, Senior Vice President, Global Partnerships National Geographic, Mechtild Rössler, Director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, and Olivia Ruggles-Brise, Director of Policy and Communications, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

Simultaneous interpretation will be provided for this event in English, French and Chinese.