Noticias del Portal de la Cultura de América Latina y el Caribe

Creative Tourism in the Caribbean: Leveraging Sustainable Development through Culture

7 November 2022/ UNESCO Havana

The UNESCO programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, funded by the European Union, will host the regional workshop Creative Tourism in the Caribbean: Leveraging Sustainable Development through Culture, from 7 to 9 November 2022, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The event will gather tourism industry stakeholders (namely National Tourism Boards), cultural and creative sector authorities, representatives of private sector and the civil society from the Transcultura beneficiary countries, regional and international organizations, international experts and academics. Specifically, the workshop will pursue the following objectives:

• To foster an enabling environment for the integration of tourism, and creative sectors, focusing on sub-sectors such as film, music, arts and craft, performing arts, museums, gastronomy, media, and design.
• To enhance the role of local cultural and creative industries as drivers of sustainable growth by leveraging culture-based creative tourism development opportunities in the Caribbean destinations.
• To strengthen cultural integration in the Caribbean and regional tourism development through increased networking opportunities and exposure to locally produced culture-based creative tourism experiences.

Background

The World Economic Forum estimates that the travel and tourism industry lost $4.5 trillion and 62 million jobs worldwide due to the pandemic disruption in 2020. According to the latest World Tourism Barometer, international tourism saw a strong rebound in the first five months of 2022, where the Caribbean led the fastest recovery rates towards 75% of pre-pandemic levels. But as the world recovers from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has called on all stakeholders to seize every opportunity to transform the tourism sector, and to target a more sustainable, inclusive, and responsible approach.

In this context, the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean is in charge of the implementation of the UNESCO programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity. In particular, the programme component on sustainable cultural tourism aims at strengthening tourism destination management and capacities in 17 Caribbean countries with the overall purpose of enhancing opportunities for regional integration and creating opportunities for young cultural professionals through the promotion of sustainable cultural tourism activities.