After the "International Mountain Tourism Day 2024" Theme Events, the International Mountain Tourism Alliance (IMTA) exchange delegation visited the headquarters of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and UN Tourism. They held discussions relatively with SungAh Lee, Deputy Director-General of the IUCN, and Sandra Carvao, Director of Tourism Market Intelligence, Policy, and Competitiveness Department at UN Tourism, among other relevant officials. The discussions focused on shared concerns, exchanging development experiences, and exploring innovative cooperation paths.
The International Mountain Tourism Alliance exchange delegation held discussions with the UN Tourism officials
As two leading international organizations in their respective fields, UN Tourism and the IUCN have maintained close and friendly cooperation with the IMTA, providing strong support during the Alliance's establishment and development. On behalf of the IMTA, Fu Yingchun, Vice Chairman and Executive Secretary-General of the IMTA, expressed gratitude to the two organizations. He stated that since its inception, IMTA has leveraged its basic positioning as an international organization and its specialization in mountain tourism, relying on the strength of its members and the industry to continuously strengthen its operational platform, create distinctive IP brands, and establish a professional research and evaluation system. By building the brand through the platform, shaping the image through the brand, and expanding influence through the image, the IMTA has played an active role in the international mountain tourism sector. Fu Yingchun expressed a desire to continue maintaining close ties with UN Tourism and IUCN, deepening exchanges and interactions in mutually concerned areas, and suggested strengthening cooperation in building collaborative mechanisms, platform operations, monographic research, demonstration cases, and promotion. He proposed enhancing and optimizing projects such as the "Classification and Evaluation System of World Famous Tourism Mountains" and the "Report on World Mountain Tourism Development Tendency," and exploring trend-specific research collaborations on the joint development of the "Certification System of World Mountain Tourism Destinations," "Mountain Tourism and Biodiversity Conservation," and "Mountain Tourism Destinations Responding to Climate Change," jointly promoting mountain resource protection and sustainable tourism development.
The International Mountain Tourism Alliance exchange delegation held discussions with IUCN officials
After hearing about the IMTA's basic background and cooperation proposals, SungAh Lee stated that the IMTA's mission aligns with the IUCN's core values. Both organizations can unite the strengths of international organizations, government departments, private enterprises, and experts to explore innovative ways to balance mountain environmental protection, cultural heritage preservation, biodiversity, and mountain tourism development. James Hardcastle, Director of Protected Areas and Regional Conservation at the IUCN, shared the IUCN Green List with IMTA exchange delegation, noting that China has achieved a series of accomplishments in green development, with several nature reserves included in the IUCN Green List. He hopes to work with the IMTA to develop and promote green mountain tourism standards to achieve global biodiversity conservation goals. Sarah Over, Communications Manager at the IUCN, introduced the organization's membership composition, key focus areas, and future plans.
Sandra Carvao from UN Tourism remarked that the establishment of International Mountain Tourism Day is in accord with the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and has been successfully held for six consecutive years as a distinctive and fruitful commemorative event. She emphasized that reliable and accurate data collection is crucial for analyzing mountain tourism development trends and suggested potential cooperation in this area. She also mentioned that projects such as the "Classification and Evaluation System of World Famous Tourism Mountains" and the "Certification System of World Mountain Tourism Destinations" could draw on the UN Tourism's "Best Tourism Village" project for related work.
The International Mountain Tourism Alliance exchange delegation took a group photo with the UN Tourism officials
This visit further laid the foundation for future cooperation between the IMTA, IUCN and UN Tourism. IMTA will conduct in-depth research on the opinions jointly discussed with the two organizations, provide detailed feedback and suggestions to both organizations, and strengthen exchanges and interactions with them, continuously exploring innovative paths for high-quality mountain tourism. We believe that with the concerted efforts of all parties, the future of sustainable mountain tourism looks promising.
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