aTP- Arab tourism portal- Ministers coming from Cote D’Ivoire, Seychelles, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal were in Rabat this week to share a podium with their counterpart from Morocco for a Ministerial Panel on ‘Sustainability at the Heart of Public Policies’. This Ministerial Panel discussion in front of some five hundred experts and interested organisations as well as a large contingent of press was part of the 1st Morocco Day to mark Sustainable and Responsible Tourism.
The Tourism Ministers Roger Kacou from Cote D’Ivoire, Alain St.Ange from the Seychelles, Najib Balala from Kenya, Maimouna Ndoye Seck from Senegal, Ulrich Jacques Andriantiana from Madagascar joined Lahcen Haddad of Morocco of the podium for an hour long panel discussion in an open hall that was full to capacity. Most of the tourism ministers present had a day before been in Spain where they were all attending FITUR, the Spanish Tourism Trade Fair. The moderator for the session was Arap Hoballah, the Chief at UNEP for Sustainable Cities, Lifestyles and Industry who kept seeking more clarification or examples of the good practices cited by the Ministers of Tourism present.
Sustainable and responsible tourism is today on the world agenda and more so since the successful COP 2015 meeting that was held in Paris. The Ministers of Tourism present all relayed their respective countries own good practices and together they converged on proposals for their region and continent.
One such recommendation was for guidance and support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to help build on the Tourism Sustainable Label adopted by the different countries to be move to a regional label before getting a continent wide label. All the Tourism Ministers present echoed their appreciation for Morocco’s drive to put sustainable and responsible tourism again on the agenda on the world stage and they all assure their Moroccan counterpart of their support in that mission.
