Why Tourism and Culture?

Culture is the bedrock on which civilizations are built and is reflected in traditions, languages, monuments, music, handicrafts, gastronomy and art around the world. Culture is an immeasurable inherent asset to its community of origin. At the same time, culture is a key tourism asset that inspires millions of tourists to travel and visit various destinations each year. Sustainably managed, tourism is a considerable force for the promotion and safeguarding of the tangible and intangible heritage it relies on, contributing to the development of arts, crafts and other creative activities. 

For many years, UNWTO and UNESCO have been working together to raise awareness about the strong interlinks between tourism and culture, while emphasizing the need for a mutually beneficial partnership models. Success will require engaging tourism and culture stakeholders at all levels to address cross cutting responsibilities in areas such as governance, community engagement, innovation and technology, and corporate social responsibility.

At a time of an unprecedented tourism growth, with more than one billion tourists crossing international borders each year, the Second UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture will provide a much needed global platform for policy-makers, experts and practitioners in both fields to meet and identify the key challenges and opportunities for sustainable development of cultural tourism.