REPORT OF THE FOURTH MEETING OF THE QUALITY SUPPORT AND TRADE COMMITTEE

Transcription

1 REPORT OF THE FOURTH MEETING OF THE QUALITY SUPPORT AND TRADE COMMITTEE Madrid, Spain, April 2006 QSTC/4/Rapp. 1. Opening by the Chairman 1. Mr. José Sancho Silva, Senior Advisor, General Directorate of Tourism of Portugal, opened the meeting on behalf of his country and made an introductory presentation on the role of the Committee and the substance of its programme (presentation attached). It was followed by a roll-call by all participants (list of participants attached). The representative of UNCTAD used this opportunity to make a statement, on behalf of his organization, on the importance of international standards as facilitators of trade and contributors to transparency in the world marketplace for services, including tourism services, which at the same time constitute the largest portion of internationally-traded services and an object of multilateral trade negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda. 2. Following Canada s departure from the Committee and its vice-chairmanship Brazil was elected to vice-chairmanship, also on the behalf the Americas region. 2. Adoption of the agenda 3. The agenda was adopted as proposed. The Committee agreed with the Chairman proposal to consider in more depth the issues related to standards and quality issues, only introduce at this meeting the other items of economic nature (investment, competitiveness), but also focus on specific issues related to safety and security. 3. Introduction by the Secretary-General 4. The Secretary-General introduced the agenda and focused on the major issues of the current work programme of the Organization, including, in the first place, risk assessment and crisis management activities. He underscored the role of international standards for tourism and reiterated the Organization s willingness to engage in a joint statement with the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA) on hotel classification.

2 4. Role of the Committee and its members 2 5. The Members acknowledged that better coordination through delegates was needed between the Committee and other bodies of the Organization. The Chairman, on behalf of his country, indicated that his delegation might represent the Committee activities in the Executive Council. The Secretariat will transmit the Committee report to the Programme Committee to follow on the previous measure of informing the Programme Committee chairperson of the QSTC agenda. 6. Members, as they come from the various regions of the Organization, were requested to consider reporting on the Committee activities to the chairpersons of their respective regional commissions. 5. Overview 5.1. General programme of work for The Committee took note that the General Assembly at its 16 th session emphasized the importance of issues falling under the Improving competitiveness, programme, namely with respect to indicators for competitiveness, unethical transnational transactions, accrediting and branding quality tourism services, as well as travellers security and crisis management. 8. The Chairman observed that appropriations for this programme decreased by 13% with respect to the previous financial period. 9. The Committee took note of the Secretariat request that, given the broad scope of the Committee activities and projects under Improving Competitiveness and the limited resources made available to this programme under the budgetary period, the Members consider the possibility of their own specialization in the substantial topics of their interest and of making available to the Organization their additional resources in terms of documents, experts, structures or technical meetings to allow successful completion of the programme Agenda It was proposed to introduce a score chart to monitor the programme implementation. The Committee took note that no strategic objectives under Agenda 2010 were included with respect to trade, economic and enterprise issues. 6. Quality and Standards/Quality Branding 6.1. National and international experience 11. Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Portugal and Spain informed of their national experience in promoting quality systems for tourism, especially by means of standards. The delegate of Lebanon informed of this activity carried out on behalf of her country as well as the Arab League as part of a broad programme aiming at social and economic sustainability of tourism in the region.

3 3 12. The Secretariat presented preliminary detailed findings of its survey on tourism standards. It was noted that only twenty-six countries and territories represented by NTAs had managed to provide their answers. The Committee urged Members to complete the survey in order to guide the Organization activities in this area and provide for liaison with ISO/TC In response to the Secretariat recommendation, a small working group, consisting of Portugal and Spain, was formed to assist the Secretariat in the programme on standards and quality. The group will deal with destination quality, classification of accommodation establishments, and organizing consumer views in this area. Other countries may join this group on topical issues and IH&RA will be consulted in the process on all issues related to classification Harmonization of standards 14. The Secretariat presented the results of its participation in the first meeting of the ISO Technical Committee on Tourism and Related Services (ISO TC 228), held in Tunis, Tunisia, on March 2006 (document QSTC/4/6.2.1). 15. The Committee supported the content and direction of cooperation between UNWTO and the OpenTravel TM Alliance (OTA) regarding standardization and use of extensible mark-up language as part of the general effort to standardize issues related to language applications in tourism (also including terminology and signs and symbols). 16. The Committee took note of continuous updates of presentations from the regional seminars and the publication of recent presentations on tourism standards (from the airport and consumer perspective), supported the initiative of publishing summary worksheets on quality work by tourism companies and destinations, the creation of tourism quality-supporting networks through participants in UNWTO seminars, and the opening of the UNWTO Internet space for country and industry information on tourism quality activities. 17. The Secretariat asked the Committee to send to it comments and additional queries which should be considered in the Secretariat position paper on international tourism standards before its publication, following the draft presented during the meeting [QSTC/4/6.2.3(a)]. 18. The Committee heard a presentation by EuroGites on its standard on rural accommodation (Product Definition for Rural Accommodation and Quality Assessment Standards) and asked for its publication as a model of a voluntary, selfassessed and flexible system allowing small establishments to enhance their product and project themselves on the market. 19. The Committee took note of regional initiatives of consultations on tourism standards, notably in Latin America (in particular the role of standards in regulatory frameworks), ASEAN, and Central Europe (Bulgaria and Romania), the Central European Initiative (with respect to hotel classification), and the requests for UNWTO support to these initiatives.

4 6.3. Hotel classification The Committee recommended to complete work on the Joint UNWTO-IH&RA Statement on Hotel Classification through bilateral consultations and to initiate work from the Secretariat on a methodological guide on hotel classification in which the small working group (Portugal and Spain) would assist and IH&RA would be consulted at the critical stages of the project, as indicated under in paragraph The Committee took note that the IH&RA proposal was to create a National Hotel & Resort Classification Guide, as part of the draft objective of the Establishment of Multiple National Hotel Classification Systems, and that the UNWTO Agenda 2010 adopted by the 16 th General Assembly provided for implementation of a voluntary system of classification of accommodations with a small number of universally accepted standards and regional adaptation of such standards Tourism signs and symbols 22. The Committee took note of the final stages of preparation of a water safety signs standard by ISO/TC 145 (Public Information symbols/graphical symbols), in which UNWTO holds liaison organization status, and agreed that UNWTO should promote the use of these signs once completed. 23. The Committee welcomed the initiative by BSI (UK) that specific tourism signs and symbols could be dealt with by ISO/TC 228, in which UNWTO also holds liaison organization status, and encouraged participation in this future work by tourism experts, with a view, in particular, to protecting cultural diversity. 24. The Committee agreed with the Secretariat proposal that the update of the UNWTO publication on Tourism Signs and Symbols of 2001 should provide for its electronic format, so as to better service request for technical assistance in tourism signage Tourism destination quality 25. The Committee initiated review of the first Secretariat draft on Destination Quality Parameters and Benchmarking Facility, and recommended to continue research on this subject, including the work undertaken by the European Commission with respect to urban, rural and coastal destinations. After hearing extensive presentations made on behalf of other Secretariat departments relating to tourism destinations, the Committee found their activities complementary to each other and strongly recommended to coordinate them within the Secretariat, including the activities undertaken by Education, Training and Knowledge Management with respect to destination governance and management, by Sustainable Development of Tourism with respect to the criteria which connect quality with sustainability and parameters by which quality criteria can actually be measured, by Market Intelligence and Promotional Techniques with respect to quality aspects in destination promotion and communication, and subsequently to contribute to the work of the Destination Council. 26. It was agreed that Members, those present at the meeting as well as other members of the Committee not present, would send their additional comments to

5 5 document QSTC/4/6.5 (Tourism Destination Quality: Destination Quality Parameters and Benchmarking), within the following three weeks, so as to complete its first review and start the next stage of the project Follow-up to the programme of work: Implementation parameters for the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. 27. The Committee welcomed the completion of the draft and recommended its submission to the World Committee on Tourism Ethics Other topics included in the agenda (Investment, trade, safe environments) 28. All the other topics included in the agenda were introduced by the Secretariat and briefly commented by the Committee. The Committee agreed that the work on the respective projects should continue, that they should be coordinated with the Business Council of the Committee of Affiliate Members and that results should be presented at the next Committee meeting to be largely dedicated to trade, economic and enterprise issues. 29. With respect to fair trade in tourism, the Secretariat asked Members, in particular from Africa and the Americas region, to identify and support experts who could participate in the upcoming fair trade-related events and benefit to this effect from grants available to the Organization, notably in Málaga, Spain, 1-2 June 2006; Cotonou, Benin, 5-6 June 2006; and in Latin America in the first quarter of With respect to air transport, the Committee and the Secretariat took note of the interest expressed by several delegations (Costa Rica, Senegal) that this issue should be dealt with urgency, in where UNWTO could provide assistance to the tourism sector of the countries concerned in their negotiations with airlines regarding air tariffs to ensure longer-term sustainability of tourism operations in these countries. 31. Regarding safety and security, the delegate of Lebanon informed of an international conference to be held on this subject in Beirut, Lebanon, on 30 October 1 November The Special Advisor to the Secretary-General presented reports on the first meeting of the Working Group on Risk Assessment and Crisis Management, held in Paris, France, on 16 March 2006, and the creation of a multistakeholder framework Tourism Emergency Response Network (TERN) which is designed as a global resource for the tourism sector with UNWTO as convener and portal provider to deal with disasters and emergency, including avian influenza. 10. Any other business 32. The President recalled the adoption by the 16 th General Assembly of the document, prepared by the Committee, on Accessible Tourism for All, representing an update of the substantive part of its resolution A/RES/284(XI) of The Committee recommended the Secretariat to engage in awareness-raising measures regarding said document, namely by messages to Members, new handouts and the Internet, in conjunction with the preparation of a United Nations Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities

6 11. Agenda, place and dates of future meetings The Committee reiterated that the programme activities related to trade, economy, investments, competitiveness and enterprise would be dealt with as priority issues at its next meeting in The Committee heard with thanks an invitation of Brazil to the effect of holding the fifth Committee meeting in conjunction with the World Tourism Forum and around its dates (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 29 November 2 December 2006). The Committee accepted in principle this invitation and asked the Secretariat to provide for arrangements with the Government of Brazil so as to ensure that the official convocation takes place in good time before the meeting, and that the participation formula provide for combining Members participation in the Forum with their attendance of the Committee business. 35. The President presented thanks to the delegates for all their efforts to attend and contribute to the meeting, to their respective authorities for providing resources to ensure participation, and to the Secretariat for preparing the meeting and making available to it the facilities necessary for the conduct of the Committee business. * * *