UN agencies call for collective efforts to develop mountain tourism
Travel Biz News —
International organizations have called for concerted work to help raise awareness of the socio-economic importance of tourism in the mountains and targeted policies to create jobs, support small and medium sized businesses and attract green investments in infrastructure and the digitalization of tourism services.
UN agencies – Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Mountain Partnership (MP), have highlighted the importance of collective efforts, involving public and private stakeholders from across the value chain, to improve data collection, standardization and delivery to gain a more comprehensive assessment of mountain tourism in terms of volumes and impacts, in a new report on mountain tourism.
Mountain tourism represents between 9 and 16% of international tourist arrivals worldwide, translating into 195 to 375 million tourists for 2019 alone.
However, the scarcity of domestic mountain tourism-related data makes it difficult or even impossible to assess the economic, social and environmental impacts of this important segment. This new report aims to address this data gap, according to a release issued by UNWTO.
Mountains are home to around 1.1 billion people, some of them among the poorest and most isolated in the world.
At the same time, mountains have long drawn tourists interested in nature and open-air destinations and outdoors activities like walking, climbing and winter sports. They also attract visitors with their rich biodiversity and vibrant local cultures.
However, in 2019, the most recent year for which figures are available, the 10 most mountainous countries (in terms of average height above sea level) received only 8% of international tourist arrivals worldwide.
The study, which was based around research carried out in 46 countries, shows that generating economic benefits, creating opportunities for local communities and developing sustainable products are the main motivations for mountain tourism development.
The sustainable development of mountain tourism was also identified as a means to help to spread tourism flows, tackle seasonality and complement existing tourist offerings.
27 April 2023
Photo : A popular tourist site in China ( Photo : Travel Biz News )
