ICTP: SUN, Mauritius and the Vanilla Islands

In a public meeting at World Travel Market, Professor Geoffrey Lipman, President of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) discussed the coming “new norm“ of Green Growth & Travelism with Chairman Arnaud Martin C.S.K. and CEO Kevin Ramkaloan Director of the Mauritian Tourism Promotion Agency and Maga Ramasamy the President of World Airlines Clubs Association.

Lipman suggested that the combined impact of the recent New York Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Climate Targets and the Addis 100 billion dollar a year financing commitment from rich to poor countries offers great new opportunities for Mauritius and the Vanilla Island States. He said that there is an urgent need for travel and tourism to step up to the Green Growth plate to capitalize on this.

Mauritius and other Vanilla Island States, like Seychelles, have already taken significant action on sustainable development but the existentialist threat of extreme Climate impacts – particularly sea level rises and storm surges – creates a special need for acceleration in adaptation for small island developing states. He added that there would be greater opportunities for public and private sector financing support – particularly from impact investment, which the World Economic Forum has identified as a trillion dollar market in the next 10 years.

Lipman showed how the SUN program can help committed States and their stakeholders to create new SDG/Climate/Emergency Response support systems. He said that SUN will deliver a distinctive, prefabricated, out of a container, solar powered centre, connected to other centres in the cloud and support dedicated post graduate researchers who will focus on the ever changing data, strategy, innovation and finance sources from around the world. He commended Mauritius for its vision in encouraging interest in the Vanilla Island Group.

Finally he said that ICTP and WACA had agreed to collaborate on advancing SUN as a practical way for travel & Tourism destinations and their stakeholders, to track the complex rapidly evolving Green Growth agenda and deliver future proofed solutions.