Hearty Discussions on Green Tourism

Int'l Green Tourism Conference touches on green growth led by green tourism and river-side resources development

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism sponsored the 2011 International Green Tourism Conference from Nov. 10-11 at the Cosmos Hall of Hotel Walker-Hill in Seoul managed by the Tourism Sciences Society of Korea (TOSOK).
With the subject of Invigoration of Green Tourism linked to Regional Development and Resources on the River Sides, the event was dedicated to bringing spotlight on the green tourism policies and firming up future directions for green tourism, TOSOK said.
The gathering included keynote speeches by Sergio Arzeni, chief of the OECD Small Business and Regional Development Bureau, and Professor Ohm Seo-ho of Gyeonggi University. The event was divided into three sessions including green tourism policies, green tourism industry and regional development participated in by nine professionals from at home and abroad presenting their themes and discussions on the major subjects.
Arzeni spoke on the green growth declaration by OECD on June 25, 2009, pointing to the need for green growth, the role of green tourism in green growth and overseas samples of green tourism, along with the need for the development of river sides resources and the methods.
The first session dealt with reviewing the past record of green tourism and the future, citing samples of green tourism from Australia and Canada, which have advanced green tourism. The session also reviewed Korea's green tourism policies to suggest new green tourism policies for the future.
In the second session, various samples of green tourism were presented, especially, tourism industry in Japan and parks in Finland made with river-side resources, followed by successful green tourism samples of InterContinental Hotel in Seoul to show domestic tourism industry what they can do to promote green tourism in Korea.
In the third session, the subject included the success of regional development by taking advantage of river-side resources and challenges. Taken at the session were such matters as the use of the river-side resources and conflicts that may rise with the implementation process of green tourism. The third session is expected to give a momentum for regional development through invigoration of green tourism, which is the ultimate target for the green tourism.
On the second day of the event, keynote speakers and all the presenters of themes gathered for round table discussion presided over by Professor Lee Yon-taik of Hanyang University on the subject of an overall green tourism in Korea with the participants suggesting their opinions freely.
The conference was staged during the month for green growth ( Oct. 17-Nov. 17, 2011) to help growth of green growth in Korea through green tourism by displaying diverse samples of successful green tourism industry overseas and laws on green tourism so that they would shed lights on the young people in the tourism industry who will take over the task of invigorating green tourism in the future. nw

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choe Kwang-shik

The speakers who are academics and professionals on green tourism at the International Conference on Green Tourism 2011 wait their turn to speak at the gathering including Chief Sergio Arzeni of the SME and Regional Development Center of OECD, at Cosmos Hall of the Walker-Hill Hotel in Seoul, Nov. 10-11.
Photos on courtesy of MCST