{"id":5624,"date":"2022-07-08T01:47:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T01:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelcommunication.net\/?p=30455"},"modified":"2022-07-08T01:47:50","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T01:47:50","slug":"empowering-youth-as-a-key-to-a-more-sustainable-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/empowering-youth-as-a-key-to-a-more-sustainable-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Youth as a Key to a More Sustainable Tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Empowering<\/a>Sorrento, Italy, July 8, 2022 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ The first Global Youth Tourism Summit<\/strong> concluded with a simulation of the UNWTO General Assembly where 120 participants from 57 countries and aged between 12 and 18 took part, and where voting on a \u201cSorrento Call to Action<\/strong>\u201d took place.<\/p>\n

This bold and ground-breaking vision for young people to be active participants in tourism\u2019s restart and growth, as a pillar of sustainable and inclusive development was adopted with a majority of favourable opinions by the students taking part.<\/p>\n

The document was drawn up based on the discussions of a series of workshops held at the Summit during the course of a week, where the young participants learned and shared their thoughts on some of the key issues facing tourism right now, among them innovation and digitalization, plastic pollution and the growing relevance of sport, culture and gastronomy for destinations.<\/p>\n

For a lot of them this was the first time they travelled outside of their country, first time they travelled by plane eve, like for Saltanat Pazylbekova, 15 years old from Kyrgyzstan \u201cThis is my first time abroad, I travelled for 12 hours to get to Sorrento and it was worth every minute. I made friends from all over the world, what a great experience. I rarely get to speak English when back home so to come here and be able to share our views with like minded individuals and learn so much about themes that are so important to me is an experience I will never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the workshops were interactive and one of the sessions that had greater impact on the young attendants was the plastic reduction workshop led by the sister duo Amy and Ella Meek, founders of Kids Against Plastic from the UK. \u201cOne of the most amazing realisations I had was at the end of the plastic reduction workshop. Plastic does not dissolve completely, it just breaks into small pieces, particles, and it stays in our ecosystem. Forever. This makes me feel frightened of what we are becoming, of what we are evolving into. I do have hope that we will find a solution, we have to!\u201d said Dinara Zamantayeva, 15years old who travelled in from Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

A lot of the attendants took part in local competitions to be selected to come and represent their country. \u201cI am so proud of myself for being chosen to come to the Summit. I learned so much during this week, I was particularly inspired by Salam Hamzeh Ghaith the CEO of Smallword Foundation and all the work she does with children.\u201d said Nhelma Jacques, 16 years old from the Seychelles.<\/p>\n

No matter how young these teenagers were, their sense of responsibility to make the world a better place was a common thread amongst all \u201cI travelled from Austria on a night train, I worry about the impact of travelling on the planet and my carbon footprint. I think about my impact all the time, it is so hard to change the way we live. It would be much easier to just continue to live the way we do but that\u2019s not an option. The climate change workshop we did is the one that marked me the most, I loved how it was all explained in a simple manner, by people of our generation. It made it so much more relatable \u2013 everyone understood the message. It\u2019s in our own hands to change the future.\u201d stated Elana Bertalan, 15 years old from Austria.<\/p>\n

The \u201cSorrento Call to Action<\/strong>\u201d goes beyond recognizing that the voice of youth must be consulted in policymaking and instead states that young people now need to active participants in every stage of the decision-making process across the whole of the tourism sector.<\/p>\n

The General Assembly simulation opened with high-level interventions both in person and via video messages from His Holiness Pope Francis, Italian Minister for Tourism Massimo Garavaglia, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Luigi Di Maio, Italian Minister for Youth Policies Fabiana Dadone, and the UN Envoy for Youth Jayathma Wickramanayake.<\/p>\n

Zurab Pololikashvili<\/strong>, mentioned that \u201cThe Global Youth Tourism Summit is a hugely
\nimportant first, for UNWTO and for our sector, and that young talent from every region
\nwill be supported to give them a stage to voice their ideas about tourism\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massimo Garavaglia<\/strong> emphasized Italy as being the proud hosts of this first ever event
\nand encouraged the young people present to become the responsible travelers of
\ntomorrow and to keep their optimism for making their dreams a reality.<\/p>\n

Jayathma Wickramanayake<\/strong> highlighted the importance of promoting the active
\nengagement of young people as agents of transformational change, challenging the
\nstatus quo, and realizing the Agenda 2030.<\/p>\n

People, planet and prosperity<\/strong>
\nThree pillars are enshrined in the Sorrento Call to Action: People, Planet, and Prosperity.
\nFor people, for example, the young signatories call for the safeguarding of human rights,
\nespecially of persons with disabilities through adequate tourism strategies and policies.
\nFor the planet, the issues of food waste, plastic pollution, climate change mitigation,
\nand biodiversity preservation are flagged up. Finally, for prosperity, poverty reduction,
\nupgrading digital skills, and creating more employment opportunities are voiced by the
\nyoung participants.<\/p>\n

The Call to Action<\/strong> states that \u201cdecision-makers must empower the youth, providing them
\nwith opportunities to voice their concerns\u201d while also working to it \u201cstimulate education
\nto ensure responsible travelers and professionals.\u201d At the same time, it recognizes the
\nhistoric significance of the first Global Youth Tourism Summit<\/strong> and calls on UNWTO to
\nhold annual summits and to work with its Member States on national events.<\/p>\n

Mafalda Borea is the Editor-at-Large of TravelIndex Group media and Founder & Chair of SustainableFirst.com<\/a> Linkedin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

First published at TravelCommunication.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorrento, Italy, July 8, 2022 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ The first Global Youth Tourism Summit concluded with a simulation of the UNWTO General Assembly where 120 participants from 57 countries and aged between 12 and 18 took part, and where voting on a \u201cSorrento Call to Action\u201d took place. This bold and ground-breaking vision for young …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1924,43,1925],"class_list":["post-5624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-travel-news","tag-corporate","tag-global-travel-news","tag-latest-travel-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}