UNESCO selects Pingyao for tourism seminar

There was a tourism seminar in the Old City of Pingyao, Shanxi province, on April 16, with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sponsorship and UNESCO representatives and tourism industry experts taking part to discuss the concepts, scale, standards and practice of "Good tourism", a project UNESCO started in 2011, with the idea of"promoting heritage protection and human development".

The seminar was a good place for the participants to get a better understanding of Pingyao's successes and experience in tourism planning, relics protection, and product development, especially after the success of its application for world heritage status. They also expressed their opinions on protecting and improving tourism resources, upgrading cultural tourism products, improving the quality of personnel in the tourism industry, and other areas.

The idea of choosing Pingyao as host had to do with the integration of eco-development, greening, carbon reduction, and sustainable development in the old city.

Edited by Roger Bradshaw