UNWTO focuses on silk road at itb

Four major Silk Road events are planned by UNWTO at ITB including an evocative cinema screening of romantic Silk Road destinations

Two events take place at Palais West and the daily screening will take place in the ITB cinema.

The first event, on 5^th March, is an invitation-only Silk Road Ministers conference dealing with the key subject of travel facilitation along the Silk Road and the second, on 6^th March a tour operators forum focusing on marketing Silk Road Tourism in Asia.

The Minister’s conference will discuss ‘Travel Facilitation and the Silk Road: Why is it important?’

As a complex network of routes spanning over three continents, the success of Silk Road tourism relies heavily upon the ability of tourists to cross borders. This Meeting will bring Ministers of Tourism together to discuss how Silk Road countries can advance the visa facilitation agenda in 2014/2015 and beyond. At the meeting, UNWTO will release the results of its latest visa facilitation report on Silk Road countries and ministers will exchange experiences and strategies for facilitating visas across the regions.

Following this there will be a Silk Road Heritage Corridors Tourism Strategy Meeting

The third event: Tour Operators Forum – ‘Profiling Asia on the Silk Road’ will take place on the 6^th March at 11.00 at Palais West

Commercial interest in the Silk Road region has grown considerably over recent years, with historical connections between Europe, the Middle East and Asia being re-discovered and revitalized. Stronger economies, improved infrastructure and connectivity, advances in information technology and enhanced mobility are creating new and exciting opportunities for tourism. This is especially true of the Asian section of the Silk Road, a region home to a great number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites which in 2013 totalled 248 million international tourist arrivals.

According to UNWTO’s long-term forecasts on the performance of individual regions, the Asian market will be growing at an average of 5% per year and reach approximately 535 million tourist arrivals by 2030. Concomitantly, its overall global market share will increase to 30%, cementing, herewith, the tourism sector’s importance for the region in terms of economic stability, sustainable growth and inclusive development.

The Silk Road Tour Operators Forum will be aiming to:

• assess the performance and profile of some of the destinations driving the region’s growth by drawing on the extensive knowledge and experience of stakeholders operating throughout the region
• assess how this knowledge and added value can be used to benefit the Silk Road tourism brand and concept
• build new alliances and partnerships between the public and private sector by giving stakeholders the opportunity to showcase their products and discuss relevant issues

Finally there will be VeRo-Tour Promotional Event for Tour-operators and Media at the Palias West

Plus, throughout the event there will be a daily screening of the Silk Road Hour…

As in previous years, the Silk Road will be present at the ITB Cinema. For the delight of travel show fans, two Globe Trekker episodes filmed along the Silk Road as part of the programme’s 20th Anniversary will be broadcast. The result of a joint collaboration between UNWTO and Pilot Productions, these two episodes will take viewers on a journey along the Silk Road from Xi’an to Istanbul passing through Central Asia.

Further information is available at:  http://silkroad.unwto.org/en

Valere Tjolle

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