The chief of the UN tourism agency and South Korea’s top diplomat and have held talks over bilateral cooperation to establish an international organisation to use sustainable tourism to fight poverty.
Taleb Rifai (left in photo), the secretary-general of the U.N. World Tourism Organization, met with South Korea’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se (on right) signed an “agreed minute” over the establishment of the International Sustainable Tourism-Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) Organisation.
The new organisation would be an outgrowth of the ST-EP Foundation, a UNWTO project headquartered in Seoul since 2004 that seeks to achieve the UN goals of developing sustainable tourism resources to help fight poverty around the world.
The initiative is built around 115 sustainable tourism projects in Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, in close collaboration with the local Governments, national authorities, NGOs, organisations and enterprises in the beneficiary countries. The projects include a wide range of activities, such as training of local guides and hotel employees, establishing business linkages between poor producers and tourism enterprises, amongst others.
Read the original article: FM, UNWTO chief discuss establishment of new tourism entity
 Organisation seeks to use sustainable tourism resources to help fight poverty around the world){kind=link}