A New Vision: Science and Tourism under the Stars
Thursday, 02 Jan, 2010
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SEE THIS FABULOUS SKYSCAPE FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS: nightskylive.net/ci/moving.gif
The StarLight Tourism Certification System (Starlight Certification) was presented at UNWTO Headquarters in Madrid. It aims at bringing closer two key components of contemporary society: Science and Tourism.
On the one hand, says the UNWTO, in this recently opened post-Copenhagen era, it has become suddenly obvious that scientific facts per se will not mobilize political institutions. The outreach of science, its penetration of institutions and civil society have been shown essential.
On the other hand, tourism appears both as a victim and a vector of climate change. Irresponsible tourism will contribute more and more to CO2 emissions; in the end a negative backlash could affect tourism activities as whole.
But tourism can be an excellent vehicle for new ideas and responsible social behaviour. The right coupling of science and tourism could contribute to global acceptance of “new ways”, the “green economy” and the “global sustainable village”.
StarLight Certification could set a model for the use of Science both as a resource for tourism and an essential part of sustainable tourism practices. StarLight Certification indicates that a tourism destination complies with a voluntary standard involving the preservation of nightscapes, including the night sky and the nocturnal bio-systems.
It is also concerned with energy conservation and with the use of natural and cultural resources at night time. It is a quality pre-condition for scientific activities in the certified destinations (especially Astronomy): in some cases for professional practitioners, but also importantly, for amateur scientists and students, and for the sensitization of important segments of the general public.
Some world-class destinations, in New Zealand, the Pacific, South America and Europe notably—have already started to develop astronomy and nightscape-based tourism products and attractions. The task is now to set the criteria and the resulting standards for the optimization of these science-tourism experiences.
This is the raison-d’être of the StarLight Certification. It aims to ensure the quality of tourism experiences involving nightscapes, the view of stars and the cosmos and the related scientific, cultural and environmental knowledge. This would give tourism a new dimension, aiming to foster its potential to create, disseminate and internalize knowledge and, especially, the very precious scientific knowledge necessary to guide as all in these times of urgent changes.
StarLight Certification evaluates excellence in tourism management processes ensuring customer satisfaction, long-term sustainability and competitiveness and value for the communities, professionals and workers involved, along with night-sky quality and strategies aimed at providing high-ranking scientific knowledge experiences for the visitors and tourists.
The presentation of the StarLight Certification to the UNWTO was carried out by Francisco Sánchez, Director of the Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands, Eduardo Fayos-Solà, Executive Secretary of the Education and Science Council, UNWTO, Cipriano Marín, Coordinator of the StarLight Initiative and Antonio Gallardo, Director of the Fuerteventura Unesco Biosphere Reserve.
Further information: [email protected]
Valere Tjolle
Valere
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