Abi recently spoke at the UNESCO EU-China High Level Event on World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism. Abi was in good company particularly as the international conference was opened by Mr Xing Qu, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO; Ms Elżbieta Bieńkowska, European Commissioner; Mr Philippe Bélaval, Representative of the Ministry of Culture of France, President of the National Monuments Centre; and finally, Mr Yuwei Mu, Representative of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, Director of the China National Tourist Office in Paris.
This exciting conference explored new models for collaboration between the European Union and China focused on World Heritage. This one-day event showcased the EU co-funded UNESCO/National Geographic “World Heritage Journeys in the EU” project.
The conference went beyond the theoretical partnership models for tourism and culture to demonstrate how World Heritage sites can increase their visibility and improve their touristic offer by setting trans-regional itineraries. It presented practical innovations, in terms of integrated approaches to sustainable tourism development, joint governance of routes between World Heritage sites and more.
It also looked at how EU and China’s World Heritage sites are leveraging sustainable tourism to enhance the conservation and promotion of World Heritage sites and enhance growth and well-being of local communities.
Abi’s Role
Abi spoke on the session titled “Tourism Marketing in China and in the EU changing how people experience World Heritage destinations”.
World Heritage has become a global brand and a major draw card for tourism –and with this brings both challenges and opportunities. The session looked at how destinations are marketing World Heritage in both China and the EU and the changing trends in visitor experience from both the supply and demand perspective.
Abi spoke alongside Ms Malin Westling, Chief Corporate Communications Officer at Visit Sweden, as well as Mr Zhenquan Yan, Director at China Cultural Centre, Paris, and many more.
You can read more about the conference in this article on the UNESCO website.