Source: School of Tourism Management
Written by: School of Tourism Management
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On November 19, 2017, the Unveiling Ceremony of Jiangmen Observatory on Sustainable Tourism, UNWTO was held in Zili Village of Kaiping, Jiangmen. Observatories on Sustainable Tourism in China have increased to a total number of nine UNWTO Sustainable Tourism Observatories managed by the Monitoring Centre for UNWTO Sustainable Tourism Observatories (MCSTO) based in the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU).
In January 2017, the Jiangmen Municipal People's Government commissioned SYSU to submit an application to the MCSTO for the establishment of the UNWTO Sustainable Tourism Observatory, under the monitoring theme “Tourism industry development and multi-cultural heritage of World Cultural Heritage Site”. In April, Dr. Edward Manning, the consultant of the UNWTO, conducted a field assessment in Jiangmen and submitted the assessment report to the UNWTO. After one year of careful examination and evaluation, Jiangmen officially became the 9th observatory in China in November 2017. It is also the first sustainable tourism observatory of Guangdong Province.

Ms. Sofia Gutierrez, Deputy Director of Programme of Sustainable Tourism Development of UNWTO; Mr. Spyros Zaharis, Olympic Flame Ambassador of Hellenic Marathon; Mr. Mei Qijie, Deputy Director of Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration; Professor Zhang Chaozhi, Associate Dean of School of Tourism Management at SYSU, and the leaders of Jiangmen city and Kaiping city attended the unveiling ceremony.

Professor Zhang Chaozhi expressed at the unveiling ceremony that through a long-term monitoring and research on tourism industry in Jiangmen, we hope that the monitoring results can provide solid evidence and reference for decision making and experiences for local tourism development, as well as through the UNWTO extensive influence to convey the voice of Jiangmen in China, and provide good practices in sustainable development of tourism and multi-cultural inheritance in heritage sites of China and worldwide.