23 January 2009: Addressing the European Travel Commission’s Transatlantic Conference, which convened on 20 January 2009, in New York, US, Assistant Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Geoffrey Lipman, emphasized the potential role of tourism in boosting the economy, while maintaining commitments to sustainable development, and called for the tourism sector to mainstream green activities.

He stressed the need for: adhering to the Green New Deal; building the “quadruple bottom line” into the sector’s policies by adding climate to economic, social and environment considerations of the sustainability equation; increasing public/private sector collaboration to enhance efficiency; accounting for the sector’s carbon impact; developing short- and long-term economic tools to support climate adaptation, trade strengthening and technology transfer; and implementing these commitments now and within the future Copenhagen framework. [UNWTO Press Release]