THE Fifth Technical Tourism Committee Meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO) opens today with focus on sustainable tourism development for the Amazon.
Sixteen official tourism delegates from the eight member countries of ACTO will be participating in a four day meeting and deliberation on strategic visioning, planning and implementation of sustainable tourism development for the Amazon as a single geo-destination. Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh, said Guyana welcomes the delegates and are proudly hosting the Fifth Technical Meeting during Tourism Awareness Month 2009.
He noted that one of the foci of the meeting will be community and sustainable tourism which includes a visit to a community-based tourism resort – Arrowpoint and Santa Mission.
He told the Guyana Chronicle that participants will engage in discussions at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, during which a five-year tourism plan for ACTO will be presented as well as discussions on ACTO tourism awards, proposals for observance of Amazonia Tourism Day, tourism and low carbon development, and integrated circuits within the Amazon countries.
Each of the eight member countries has appointed two persons on the committee and, in Guyana’s case, it is represented by him and GTA Administrative Manager, Mr. Ohene Koama.
Haralsingh said the committee members, basically, give technical advice to ACTO on matters pertaining to tourism, its development and so forth, within those countries, and how they can all put their collective experiences to market and brand the Amazon.
He said Guyana was previously represented at technical meetings in Ecuador, Suriname, Peru and Brazil.
A reception was hosted last evening for the delegates of the meeting by GTA and the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce.
ACTO, an inter-governmental organisation that unites the eight countries of the Amazon Basin – Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela – was formed in Brazil in 2003, after being founded through the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (ACT) signed in 1978.
Its Permanent Secretariat (ACTO/PS) was established by the end of 2002 and its mission is to promote the integrated and sustainable development of the Amazon region.
The organisation is currently executing its 2004-2012 Strategic Plan, developed with inputs from the countries, international organisations, technical experts, civil society organisations and local communities, to pursue a number of approaches.
This year is designated ‘Destination Amazonian Year 2009’ which is an tourism initiative launched by ACTO in collaboration with the eight Member countries that are signatories to the Amazon Cooperation Treaty, with a mandate to promote the sustainable and integrated development of the Amazon region, invoke sustainable tourism in the Amazon as one of the vehicles to alleviate poverty, and protect the environment and biological diversity in the region while generating increased national incomes.
