Promote sustainable tourism, says conference

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The International Conference on Tourism and Heritage Management ended yesterday calling for cooperation between governments and the tourist industry in promoting sustainable tourist development.

The three-day conference, which started last Monday, was officially closed by Stephen Hill, director of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), at the Radisson Hotel in Yogyakarta.

Conference participants put forward recommendations for world governments, tourist organizations, academics and communities.

Noted Indonesian sociologist Selo Sumardjan chaired the general assembly which called for respect for local religions, culture and environment in areas to be developed into tourist resorts.

Ideally, entire communities should be involved in developing tourism, recommended members of one of the three working parties at the conference.

Tourism development plans should be announced in local media to ensure that all sectors of affected communities are well informed, they said.

"Authorities should not allow private developers of tourism projects to influence the community or to become moderators at public hearings on tourism projects. It is the government's job to approach and protect the community," they said.

Participants of the conference called on governments to encourage all parties involved in tourism to conduct more interdisciplinary researches.

The government should enforce regulations to ensure that no tourism development project would have a negative impact on cultural and natural heritage or the community, the recommendation said.

The second working party called for better understanding of how cultural and natural heritage attractions can be marketed without endangering them.

Tour operators and others engaged in tourist industries should know how to care for protected areas such as Komodo Island, East Nusa Tenggara. "They cannot bring mass tourism to this area because it is very vulnerable to ecological damage," the group said.

Increasing the funding for managing heritage sites is very important. Funding could be generated from government contributions and from tourist-related industries themselves, they said.

No less important is the task of expanding knowledge about cultural tourism in the people associated with the industry, the group recommended.

How effective the recommendations may be could remain unanswered as most conference participants were from the academic community. The private tourist industry was not represented. (raw/07)