Achievements

Eight hundred persons from 68 countries participated in the event which featured video-taped messages from Pope John Paul II and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in the Opening Ceremony. President Vigdis Finnbogadottir of Iceland, the world’s first elected woman Head of State was the Honorary Chair of the Conference. Exactly two years earlier she had hosted the Reykjavik Summit between President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev which resulted in the beginning disarmament of nuclear weapons between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The Vancouver conference first introduced the concept of “Sustainable Tourism Development” – four years prior to the UN Rio Summit on Environment and Development. It also introduced a new paradigm for a “Higher Purpose of Tourism” – a paradigm that includes the role of tourism in: promoting international understanding; collaboration among nations; protecting the environment and preserving biodiversity; enhancing cultures and valuing heritage; sustainable development; poverty reduction, and healing wounds of conflict.Conference Declarations:

• Amman Declaration on Peace though Tourism on UN website. 
• Lusaka Declaration on Tourism, Climate Change and Peace on UNWTO adopted by UN World Tourism Organization

• Other Conference Outcomes:
• World leaders UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold; Nelson Mandela; Mahatma Gandhi, King Hussein of Jordan and Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledged as

“Men of Peace.

• Broad international awareness to the potential of travel and tourism to contribute to broader societal and global objectives and the realization of a peaceful, just, and sustainable world.
• IIPT Credo of the Peaceful Traveler distributed throughout the world.;  
• Awards to individuals and organizations in recognition of outstanding achievements that contribute to international understanding, cooperation and peace.
• Second Global Conference, Montreal 1994: “Building a Sustainable World through Tourism”

influenced the World Bank to begin funding projccts to reduce Poverty Reduction through Tourism.

• Uganda first nation in the world to introduce Tourism Legislation in support of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.

• Africa Diaspora Heritage Trail (ADHT) conceived by Bermuda Minister David H. Allen at the First Global Summit, Amman. 
• Launch of Uganda Martyr’s Trail.
• Proclamation of “National Peace through Tourism Week” for each of IIPT’s African Conferences.
• Pattaya, Thailand declared a “City of Peace” as legacy of IIPT 3rd Global Summit.
• Facilitated MOU between Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and Africa Travel Association (ATA) with the aim of nurturing an “Asia – Africa Bridge of Tourism, Friendship and Collaboration.”          

• International Youth Hostel flagship program “Hostelling for Peace and International Understanding” in partnership with IIPT.
• Educator Forums and Student/Youth Leadership Forums at each of IIPT Conferences and Summits.
• “Peace through Tourism” incorporated in educational programs of colleges and universities and increasingly a topic of scholarly research by professors and students.
• Scholarships awarded students writing the best paper on the theme of each Conference and Summit.

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Additional IIPT Achievements Codes of Ethics and Guidelines for Sustainable TourismFollowing the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, IIPT developed the world’s first Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Sustainable Tourism with a mandate from the Canadian travel and tourism industry. These also served as an early model for other nations. As well, IIPT developed guidelines for the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) GreenLeaf Program.  First International Study of Tourism and Sustainable DevelopmentIn 1993, IIPT was commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to conduct the first international study of best practice regarding Tourism, Environment and Sustainable Development. Peace Parks Across CanadaThe IIPT Peace Parks Across Canada program commemorated Canada’s 125th Birthday as a nation in 1992. Three hundred and fifty cities and towns from St. John’s, Newfoundland on the shores of the Atlantic – across five time zones to Victoria, British Columbia on the shores of the Pacific dedicated a park to peace. More than 330 parks were dedicated at noon local time, October 8th, as a National Peacekeeping Monument was being unveiled in Ottawa with 5,000 UN Peace Keepers passing in review. Each of the Peace Parks incorporated a ‘Bosco Sacro’ (Peace Grove) of 12 trees as a symbolic link with one another, and with nature – and as a symbol of hope for the future. The 12 trees were also symbolic of Canada’s 10 Provinces and two Territories. Of the more than 25,000 projects commemorating Canada’s 25th anniversary, Peace Parks Across Canada was said to be the most significant.

Global Peace Parks Program“Peace Parks Across Canada” has served as the foundation for the “IIPT Global Peace Parks Program launched on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, 2000 – first year of the new Millennium – from Bethany Beyond the Jordan, site of Christ’s baptism, as a legacy of the IIPT First Global Summit, Amman, Jordan. IIPT International Peace Parks have since been dedicated on every continent except Antarctica.