dilluns, 14 de juliol del 2014

The WTO in Cartagena, Colombia

Last month I attended the regional meeting of the World Tourism Organisation, which was held (quite conveniently for me) in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

The meeting revolved around the sustainability, a topic which is becoming a bit of a common place nowadays. It was kind of interesting, seeing one Latin American official after the other (from Cuba, Honduras, Chile or Colombia alike) as they eagerly explained all the things their countries had done to improve tourism in a sustainable way. It was like pupils at school showing their accomplishments to the principal by the end of the year, but the principals happened to be the WTO officials in this case.

These world organisations are much like tourism itself, which in turn is said to be like fire: it can cook you a nice meal or burn down your house, as the nice saying goes. I recently downloaded a report from the Unesco written in the sixties with a handful of recommendations about Cartagena. The final recommendations concluded that some 120.000 hotel places had to be offered and a second airport at Baru had to be built. Fortunately this never happened, but what a threat that posed for the city and its resources!

Funny then, fifty years later the WTO is heralding sustainable tourism here in Cartagena, where half a century ago they promoted a heavy fordist tourism. Well, better improving later than never. Here you are the link. to this incredible report.