Thailand Tourism Minister Weerasak props up GSTC conference opening

HE Weer­a­sak Kowsur­at, Thail­and’s Min­is­ter of Tour­ism and Sport brought props to his open­ing speech for the 2019 Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC) Asia-Pacific Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Con­fer­ence today in Chi­ang Mai.

Des­pite micro­phone issues break­ing his flow, Mr Weer­a­sak used the props to make his point. He brought to the podi­um a bag made from fish­ing nets, a t‑shirt made from plastic bottles, a refil­lable bottle to replace plastic bottles, bio­de­grad­able shower caps, and sham­poo bottles, all of which he claimed poin­ted to the many pos­it­ive things that are hap­pen­ing in sus­tain­ab­il­ity and sus­tain­able tour­ism without gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tion or enforcement.

How­ever, the Min­is­ter star­ted his speech say­ing that 38 mil­lion tour­ists was a wake-up call for Thai­l­and. Policies that his gov­ern­ment had over­seen included a smoking ban at beach­fronts, and a ban on plastic bags and styro­foam in nation­al parks, as well as Thail­and’s upgrade to its train net­work with new express lines.

Earli­er in the open­ing ses­sion, Taweeb­hong Wichaid­it, Dir­ect­or-Gen­er­al of the Des­ig­nated Areas for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Admin­is­tra­tion (DASTA) said that, over the past five years, his organ­isa­tion had developed a closer rela­tion­ship with GSTC and a more sys­tem­at­ic applic­a­tion of GSTC cri­ter­ia across the country.

Luigi Cab­rini, Chair of GSTC, said that sus­tain­able tour­ism gen­er­ates more eco­nom­ic bene­fits than tour­ism busi­ness as usu­al, point­ing to both demand- and sup­ply-side influ­ences. He said con­scien­tious trav­el­lers demand bet­ter and are will­ing to pay more, while innov­at­ive entre­pren­eurs real­ise cost sav­ings and high­er price points by dis­cov­er­ing more sus­tain­able ways to con­duct their business.

Themes to be explored over two days of the 2019 GSTC Asia-Pacific Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Con­fer­ence, Feb­ru­ary 28 & March 1, include: “Smart Des­tin­a­tion Man­age­ment”; “Qual­ity Tour­ism: Deliv­er­ing Sus­tain­able Qual­ity Exper­i­ences”; and “Tour­ism Pro­tect­ing Wildlife”.

Fea­tured image: Thai­l­and Min­is­ter of Tour­ism & Sport HE Weer­a­sak Kowsur­at. TAT­news file image.