World Heritage Sustainable Tourism

Course Announcement

Date

June 13-19, 2016

Place

Shanghai & Suzhou

Application deadline

April 30 - the admission notice will be released in the middle of May

Organizers

·           UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC)

·           World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO, Shanghai Centre (WHITRAP Shanghai)

Supporters

·           Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China

·           Shanghai Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute

Background

In 2012, the World Heritage Committee adopted the ‘World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme’ (here after referred to as WH+ST) in its 36^th session (36 COM 5E) and integrated the programme into the Strategic Action Plan of the World Heritage Convention 2012-2022 (WHC-11/18.GA/11), which is coordinated by WHC on the global scale. Five objectives are expected to be achieved by conducting the WH+ST programme:

ž   First, integrate sustainable tourism principles into the mechanisms of the World Heritage Convention;

ž   Second, strengthen the enabling environment by advocating policies, strategies, frameworks and tools that support sustainable tourism as an important vehicle for protecting the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of cultural and natural heritage;

ž   Third, promote stakeholder engagement in the planning, development and management of sustainable tourism that arouse local communities’ awareness of the challenges and benefits of a ‘destination approach’ on World Heritage conservation;

ž   Fourth, provide stakeholders with the capacity and tools to manage World Heritage tourism efficiently, responsibly and sustainably based on the local context and needs;

ž   Fifth, enhance the quality of tourism products and services that encourage responsible action among all stakeholders, as well as fostering their understanding, appreciation and protection on the OUV of World Heritage.

In February 2015, WHITRAP, a Category Ⅱ Centre under the auspices of UNESCO , was appointed by World Heritage Centre to start the WH+ST pilot programme in China. By conducting trainings and researches of the heritage sites, WHITRAP will provide valuable and sustainable management approach for tourism development of the heritage sites in China in the next five years; WHITRAP will guide the sites on the Tentative list to develop sustainable tourism management strategy and mechanism in order to help its declaration work; and finally WHITRAP will assist the World Heritage Sites in fulfilling the request on monitoring and reporting linked to sustainable tourism which was proposed by World Heritage Committee.

Objectives

·      * Provide participants with the knowledge on the basic requests, main content, and implementation steps of heritage tourism management at the international level, by interpreting the World Heritage Sustainable Tourism Programme;

·      * Develop World Heritage sustainable tourism management framework and embodiment in the context of China;

·      * Select the pilot sites in China for the WH+ST programme after understanding the actual demand of the tourism management of the site;

·      * Build up the network of World Heritage management bodies in China, encourage the communications among the government agencies, management bodies, stakeholders, and learn the management experience of the World Heritage Sustainable Tourism.

Methodology

The course will be based on multiple activities of lectures, case studies, field trips, group discussions, and presentations. Apart from the lecturers, participants and their practical experience are also important to the course, therefore, the course requests full involvement of the participants.

Teaching Team

The lecturers are from: WHC, ICOMOS, WTO, WHITRAP; the professionals from tourism-related colleges and universities; and managers of the World Heritage sites.

Participants

·      * The professionals or managers from the World Heritage sites and sites on the Tentative List in China are preferred. And the course is designed for a maximum of 30 participants.

·      * Priority will be given to the immediate supervisors and core members of the management team.

Certificate

A certificate will be given by WHITRAP to those participants who satisfactorily complete the course.

Course Fee

6500 RMB which includes the fee of teaching materials and field trip; the accommodation fee and living expenses are excluded.

Application

·      * A latest and completed professional curriculum vitae with photo (jpg format)

·      * Application from

Please send all the materials to WHITRAP by Email. The Email address is whitrap_training@163.com

Contact information

·      Contact person: Ms. Luo Xi

·      Tel: 0086 021 65987687 ext. 8018

·      Address: 3^rd Floor Wen Yuan Building, 1239 Siping Rd., Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, P.R. China