FOREWORD Nzo District Municipality. Once again, it was wonderful going into the deep rural areas. It was at one of these workshops that we met up with Thebethini and Phindile, who have been featured in the volumes 1 and 2 of the handbooks. If you remember in the previous handbook, we met Thebethini and Phindile and were invited to see a magnificent site 25kms from the village that they live in. We are pleased to report that they have a letter from the Chief which will allow a development for the community. We also attended the Karoo Parliament (in Cradock), which we have been involved with for a number of years. The Karoo Parliament is an occasion where the Karoo towns congregate and discuss and plan economic development, including: aviation, infrastructure, farming, fracking, tourism, health related issues, community wellbeing, energy, water and waste. There were many outcomes from the conference, one of which is that the Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme will be the implementation partners of sustainable tourism in the Karoo and we will be the partners in the Karoo Parliament. The ultimate highlight for us was when the Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme was accepted as a UNWTO Affiliate Member in October 2014. Of this we are very proud. As the STPP is now an affiliate member, we found it necessary attend a conference in Cambodia. It was the UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Culture. Over the years UNSECO, together with member countries,
has identified World Cultural and Heritage Sites. The point of the conference was to strengthen links between culture and tourism and “to create positive dynamics between the two, a dynamic that is mutually reinforcing, that works for sustainability and the benefit of local communities�. The STPP also attended a UNWTO/UNEP conference in Nambia. In October, the STPP launched its Resource Efficiency Programme (with partners Evolve and NCPC-SA) as well as a GreenDreamsTM, a Carbon Offset Project (with partners Climate Neutral Group) for accommodation establishments. We will be working in clusters and are pleased to announce that 30 sites have been chosen for our pilot project. We will be rolling the programmes out town by town, suburb by suburb. We have also signed up an entire association in Gauteng, and they will be leading the way in showcasing how collaboration is the only way to go. In addition, we launched our membership, which came about as so many people asked us if they could become STPP members. We invite you to join the journey in order to strengthen small businesses in the tourism industry and to making South Africa one of the most revered Sustainable Tourism Destinations in South Africa.
Sincerely Caroline Ungersbock
THE TOURISM HANDBOOK
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