London 2012 Olympic Peace through Tourism pace steps up

Gordon Sillence, coordinator of the London 2012 Olympic Peace Campaign, is looking ahead to a summer of action to lay the foundations for 16 days of global peace for the travel industry business in 2012.

Said Gordon: "After the International Peace through Tourism Conference in Africa, I went the UNWTO in Madrid, where we discussed a memorandum of understanding on working together towards the realisation of the UN/IOC-backed Olympic Truce for the London 2012 Olympic Games."

"The support given by Dr Taleb Rifai Secretary General of UNWTO and his team is very encouraging, and I believe tourism stakeholders will have a key role to play in making this happen for real."

However, even the tourism component of the Olympic Peace Campaign alone is ambitious - to ensure the peace is in place according to the traditional Olympic spirit of the Games, Gordon would like to see a global map of safe passage and peaceful destinations.

He has set up a mapping and monitoring system for the peace through tourism development process on the DestiNet Portal (http://destinet.eu/topics/sustainable-consumption-and-production/peace-through-tourism).

For 2012 the tourism component of the Campaign's work programme includes:

*Producing a global map of of safe passage, safe and unsafe destinations during the time of the Olympics

*Working within the UN structure to develop a coherent overview of UN peace process relevant to the Olympic Truce

*Helping to establish a list of global, sub-global, and national contacts who can facilitate support for the Olympic Truce

*Working specifically with national tourism offices, and national foreign affairs departments and the media to correlate conflict zones, unsafe passages, safe and unsafe destinations during the time of the Olympics

*Cooperating on the issue of promoting Peace through Tourism at large-scale events in the framework of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism

*Making press releases and media campaigns to promote the London 2012 Olympic Peace Campaign

The International Institute of Peace through Tourism recognised the London 2012 Olympic Peace Campaign and will be working with Gordon to help make this happen. Vision on Sustainable Tourism is already a partner in this monumental task, and Gordon invites all tourism stakeholders to play their part.

The Campaign is now ready to engage with the London Olympic Organisers to work with both bottom up and top down processes to make the peace happen.

To mark the one year to go countdown at the start of August, a meeting will be held in London to bring a 'coalition of the willing' together to make this happen.."Report by Valere Tjolle Travel Mole website.

Published: 5.7.2011