IIPT President Guest Speaker at Chestnut Hill and Ambler Rotary Clubs Philadelphia

IIPT Founder and President, Lou D’Amore was the guest speaker this past week at two Rotary Clubs nearby Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Chestnut Hill and Ambler Rotary Clubs where he received a warm welcome from each of the Clubs. The main purpose of his talk was to provide information regarding the IIPT Global Peace Parks Project with a goal of 2,000 IIPT Peace Parks circling the earth by 11 November 2020 in support of the World War I Centenary and its theme “no more war.”

D’Amore began his talk at each of the Clubs by commending Rotary for its more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide who volunteer locally, regionally, and internationally to make the world a better place and under the motto ‘Service Above Self.”

He provided a brief background on the importance of travel and tourism indicating its impressive growth from 25 million international arrivals in 1950 to its current level of 1.4 billion and its accounting for 10.2% of global GDP; 1 in every 10 jobs; and the largest source of foreign exchange for most developing countries. And in this context – the vision with which IIPT was born more than 30 years ago.

Travel and Tourism becoming the World’s first Global Peace Industry and the belief that Every Traveler is potentially an Ambassador of Peace

D’Amore explained that the Global Peace Parks Project builds on the success of IIPT’s 1992 “Peace Parks across Canada” Project commemorating Canada’s 125th birthday as a nation which resulted in 350 Peace Parks being dedicated by cities and towns from St. John’s, Newfoundland on the shores of the Atlantic, across five time zones to Victoria, British Colombia on the shores of the Pacific.

The Peace Parks were all dedicated on October 8, 1992 as a National Peace Keeping Monument was being unveiled in Ottawa and 5,000 Peacekeepers passing in review. Each park was dedicated with a ‘bosco sacro’ – a peace grove of 12 trees, symbolic of Canada’s 10 Provinces and 2 Territories, as a link to one another, and a symbol of hope for the future. Of the more than 25,000 Canada 125 Projects, Peace Parks across Canada was said to be the most significant.

IIPT International Peace Parks have since been dedicated as a legacy of each IIPT International Conference and Global Summit. Notable IIPT International Peace Parks include Bethany Beyond the Jordan, site of Christ’s baptism as a legacy of the Amman Summit, 2000; Victoria Falls, as a legacy of the IIPT 5th African Conference, 2011, subsequently re-dedicated as the featured event on Opening Day of the UNWTO 20th General Assembly 2013; Medellin, Colombia, dedicated on Opening Day of the UNWTO 21st General Assembly;