Community tourism pioneer to conduct full-day workshop at IIPT World Symposium

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

STOWE, Vermont – IIPT Founder and President Louis D’Amore announced today that community tourism pioneer, Diana McIntyre Pike, President/Founder of Countrystyle Community Tourism Network/Villages

STOWE, Vermont – IIPT Founder and President Louis D’Amore announced today that community tourism pioneer, Diana McIntyre Pike, President/Founder of Countrystyle Community Tourism Network/Villages as Businesses Program and Founder/Partner of Countrystyle Caribbean Vacations and Tours (COCAVAT) will be conducting a full-day Pre-Symposium workshop on Community Tourism, February 16, 2015.

Diana McIntyre-Pike is the recipient of numerous awards for her pioneering efforts in Community Tourism including the Virgin Holidays` Award for Overall Personal Contribution to Responsible Tourism received at World Travel Market 2008 in recognition of her more than 35 years in pioneering Community Tourism. Her company Countrystyle was one of 100 organizations worldwide to receive Islands Magazine’s 2008 Responsible Tourism award and her Countrystyle Community Experience packages were featured among the world’s top 20 Responsible Tourism offerings in the December 2007 and December 2008 issues of the magazine.

International organizations including UNESCO, the Organization of American States and Organization of Eastern Caribbean States have each recognized Diana as a leading world expert in Community and Cultural Heritage tourism. She is also an acknowledged leader in her home country of Jamaica having received the Government of Jamaica Order of Distinction (OD) for Tourism and Community Service; the Women’s Bureau of Jamaica Top 50 International Women Award for her “outstanding contribution to Community Tourism” and other prestigious awards.

The workshop will be open to all delegates to the IIPT World Symposium at no extra fee and offers an excellent opportunity for persons interested in a state of the art learning opportunity in community tourism from one of the world’s leading experts.

The IIPT World Symposium: Cultivating Sustainable and Peaceful Communities and Nations Through Tourism, Culture and Sport, will be held February 16-19, 2015, at Emperors Palace, Ekurhuleni, South Africa – adjacent to O.R. Tambo International airport, Johannesburg.

The interactive and action oriented Symposium will honor the legacies of the world’s three Champions of Peace and Non-Violent Resistance: Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. with the aim of affirming these legacies by building bridges of tourism, friendship and peace in regions throughout the world.

The Symposium, endorsed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, will also commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the African Union, 20 years of South African Democracy and 50th Anniversary of U.S. Civil Rights Legislation.

Keynote speakers in this milestone event for tourism will include: Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary General, UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO); David Scowsill, President and CEO World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Salih Cene, President, Skal International, Hon. Derek Hanekom, Minister of Tourism, South Africa (Invited); Hon. Alain St. Ange, Minister of Tourism, Seychelles; Martin Craigs, (until recently) CEO, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA); Professor Geoffrey Lipman, President, International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP); Mok Singh, Skal International President (2012 – 2013) and member, IIPT International Advisory Board and other industry leaders from both the public and private sectors.

The Symposium has two basic aims: to identify strategies and best practice in cultivating productive, sustainable, peaceful and welcoming communities through tourism, culture and sports; and to determine lessons learned from countries that have experienced conflict and the potential roles of tourism, culture and sports in reconciliation and post-conflict socio-economic re-development.

Concurrent sessions will feature (real life) success stories illustrating the Symposium theme presented by leading experts and practitioners from different regions of the world.

Design of the Symposium will be highly interactive with international experts in community development, community tourism, sports, culture and peace engaging with delegates in the exchange of experiences and ideas; and Ministers of Tourism from countries that have experienced conflict sharing their insights and suggestions related to strategies for reconciliation and healing wounds of conflict and best practices in harnessing tourism, culture and sports in the re-development process.

As with past IIPT Conferences and Summits, Pre-Symposium Events will include a full day Educators Forum and full day Student/Youth Leadership Forum.

Symposium Host Partners are: South Africa Tourism, the Metropolitan Municipalities of Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South African Airways and Emperors Palace.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which has supported IIPT International events since the First IIPT Global Conference, Vancouver 1988, will again be a partner in the Symposium together with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) the only global forum whose members consist of the top 150 private sector decision makers in the Travel & Tourism industry. Other partners include: Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Africa Travel Association (ATA), Skal International and the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP.

This is IIPT’s seventeenth international event and seventh global summit since its founding in 1986, the UN International Year of Peace.

More information is available on the IIPT website: www.iipt.org and our November newsletter: http://www.iipt.org/newsletter/2014/november.html

To register for the Symposium, please visit our Symposium website http://www.iiptsymposium.com/ – Please Note – Early bird registration closes December 12, 2014.

We look forward to your participation with us in “Building a Culture of Peace through Tourism, Culture and Sport. February 16-19 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

IIPT is dedicated to fostering and facilitating tourism initiatives that contribute to international understanding and cooperation, an improved quality of environment, the preservation of heritage, poverty reduction, and the resolution of conflict – and through these initiatives, help bring about a more peaceful and sustainable world. IIPT is dedicated to mobilizing travel and tourism, the world’s largest industry, as the world’s first “Global Peace Industry,” an industry that promotes and supports the belief that “Every traveler is potentially an Ambassador for Peace.”

www.iipt.org

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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