At the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL)/UNWTO Silk Road Think Tank, 170 future hospitality leaders presented innovative strategies for how ten UNWTO Member States can maximize their positioning as Silk Road destinations (Lausanne, Switzerland, 4 June 2012). — Photo by UN Tourism

At the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL)/UNWTO Silk Road Think Tank, 170 future hospitality leaders presented innovative strategies for how ten UNWTO Member States can maximize their positioning as Silk Road destinations (Lausanne, Switzerland, 4 June 2012). A panel of judges consisting of EHL management, UNWTO officials and Member States representatives selected the three winning student teams who developed the most outstanding strategies for Azerbaijan (first place), the Altai Krai region of the Russian Federation (second place) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (third place). The winning team will visit Altai Krai later this year to work with the local government to develop a comprehensive Silk Road tourism strategy for the region.

Over the past eight weeks, EHL students have been working through their strategic management course to come up with 5-10 year strategies for ten UNWTO Member States as part of their final assessment before graduating. Students were tasked with preparing innovative and feasible strategies for Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Greece, the Republic of Korea, Iran, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The strategies were developed in line with the UNWTO Silk Road Action Plan 2012-2013 and the UN Millennium Development Goals.

During the Think Tank, students had the opportunity to present their strategies to UNWTO officials and Member States, who then judged and selected the three winning teams. The programme concluded with an open panel debate on how to overcome the major challenges facing tourism development across the Silk Road.

"The UNWTO Silk Road Programme plays an important role in bringing the countries of the Silk Road together again to foster growth and sustainable tourism development," said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. "We are therefore delighted to be working for the first time with Europe's top hospitality management school on this highly innovative initiative to the benefit of the Silk Road."

Michel Rochat, General Director of EHL, said: "The hospitality sector has always been a link between people and culture and our students reflect this tradition. Allow me to thank country officials for recognising the significant contribution of the youth of today for the development of their tourism strategies."

The 27 reports prepared by the students cover topics such as social media and mobile technologies, transport, infrastructure, capacity building in hospitality management, intangible heritage and the restoration of cultural sites, including caravanserais. A comprehensive report on the strategies from the EHL/UNWTO Silk Road Strategy Challenge will soon be available on the UNWTO website.

Useful links:

About UN Tourism

The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

Our Priorities

Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.

Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.

Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UN Tourism Members' competitiveness through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.

Advancing tourism's contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.

Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.

Our Structure

Members: An intergovernmental organization, UN Tourism has 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.

Organs: The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization. The Executive Council take all measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.

Secretariat: UN Tourism headquarters are based in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in over 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East serve as the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents UN Tourism's 500 plus Affiliate members.

Rut Gómez Sobrino
Principal Media Officer
(+34) 91 567 81 60
UN Tourism