Committing to promote tourism, Honduras will sign the UNWTO Golden Book!
President Juan Orlando Hernandez has given tourism an important place in his government. This coming month of March, he will go even a step further: Honduras will sign the UNWTO Golden book. Mr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization will visit Honduras this coming month of March, 2015. His visit to Honduras has three distinct motives:
Above all, Honduras will sign the UNWTO Golden Book! This means that the government of President Hernandez publicly commits to tourism as an economic development tool under the promotion of sustainable tourism. This is good news for the tourism industry in Honduras, which has been left pretty much on its own for the past few years. Last year, President Hernandez signed a decree declaring that Tourism was a National Priority for Honduras; now with the signing of the UNWTO he takes his commitment a step forward and shows the community of countries that form the United Nations that he truly means business!
Besides the fact that Honduras will sign the UNWTO Golden Book, Honduras will also sign an agreement with UNWTO to establish the first UN Sustainable Tourism Observatory in the Americas! Yes, this will be the first such observatory in the Americas, and the fact that it will be established in Honduras, with headquarters in the city of La Ceiba in Atlantida, is a clear indication that Honduras believes that sustainable tourism can indeed make a difference in its quest to reduce poverty and make its economy more dynamic. To this day there are only 6 UN Sustainable Tourism Observatories in the World, 5 are in China and one in the Greek Isles.
Last, but not least, the Private Tourism sector, led by CANATURH will sign the UNWTO Code of Ethics, committing to adhere and promote the following of this code of ethics by all of its members nationwide.