Harness Cultural Routes and Experiences for Competitive Tourism, Concludes UNWTO Congress

Madrid, Spain - Following the first edition held two years ago, the 2nd International Congress on World Civilizations and Historic Routes (15-16 November) concluded today in Sofia, Bulgaria. In the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage and the EU-China Tourism Year, the event explored how tourism along historic routes can help to safeguard and promote tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria, the congress explored the role of national and regional public bodies in enhancing of historic routes, particularly across nations. It gathered Ministers from four continents, as well as public and private experts representing iconic cultural tourism routes including Route 66, the Way of Saint James (Camino de Santiago), the Phoenicians' Route and the Silk Road.

"Historic routes can play a major role in revealing the unique history, culture and natural assets of territories along them, becoming a powerful promotional tool and a unique instrument to increase tourism competitiveness for many destinations", said UNWTO Deputy Secretary-General Jaime Cabal opening the event.

Nikolina Angelkova, Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria, outlined her plans to advance cultural tourism in Bulgaria. "Cultural tourism can play a key role in turning Bulgaria into an all-year-round tourism destination. We are considering creating an ancient civilizations' route incorporating UNESCO monuments, which would better acknowledge and promote the Balkan region as a tourism destination," she said.

Discussions centred on identifying best practices in tourism development, management and promotion that can help to harness the tourism potential of historic routes, enhance the value of their cultural heritage, and preserve their authenticity. Successful examples were exchanged of well-developed and managed historic routes, with a focus on ways to maximize tourism's socio-economic impacts for local communities and contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.

In recent years cultural tourism has emerged as a major driver of demand, in line with travellers' growing interest to immerse themselves in tourism 'experiences' such as local rituals and traditions. The congress produced a useful set of recommendations that can provide guidance to all tourism stakeholders interested in harnessing the potential that cultural heritage routes offer for enhancing the attractiveness and competiveness of destinations.

Video recordings of the 2nd International Congress on World Civilizations and Historic Routes will be uploaded early next week.

About UN Tourism

The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

Our Priorities

Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.

Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.

Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UN Tourism Members' competitiveness through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.

Advancing tourism's contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.

Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.

Our Structure

Members: An intergovernmental organization, UN Tourism has 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.

Organs: The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization. The Executive Council take all measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.

Secretariat: UN Tourism headquarters are based in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in over 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East serve as the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents UN Tourism's 500 plus Affiliate members.

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