First Intl. Conference on Tourism & Handicrafts to be held in Tehran
This conference has been organized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) in order to discuss the role of handicrafts in promoting tourism industry which will result in job creation and earning more currency through attracting more tourists.
“Handicrafts and their interactions with tourism can be used as an instrument in creating a dialogue among civilizations, folks and nations in the coming global society and the First International Conference on Tourism and Handicrafts is a suitable measure in achieving this goal,” said Rahim Mashaii, President of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization.
Handicrafts are always considered as part of a county’s tourism attractions for all foreign even domestic tourists all over the world. It is considered as an integral part of tourism experience for international tourists. Most tourists who go to other countries show a lot interest in learning more about the art, culture, and traditions of the host country and want to take a piece of this experience as a souvenir to keep the memory of the country alive.
By taking these pieces of handicrafts to their countries, they will provide the chance for the others to get familiar with cultures of the people in another part of the world. On the other hand, the handicraftsmen rely heavily on tourists who buy their works. However, despite the importance of handicrafts in attracting tourists, the connection between handicrafts and tourism is not properly defined in many tourist destination countries. Recognizing the significance of handicrafts in tourism development and its relation with tourism which should be fully identified and developed not just for Iran but for the benefit of all countries concerned, UNWTO and CHTO have arranged this conference. The main objectives of the Conference will be as follows:
1. Examining job creation, income generation, and poverty reduction opportunities in developing handicrafts and investigating ways to maximize these opportunities through the tourism-handicrafts link. Special attention will be paid to vulnerable sectors such as women, youth, and the physically disabled people.
2. Recognizing the importance of local handicrafts in tourism development and reciprocally the importance of tourism as an agent for the protection and preservation of traditional crafts, methods of production and cultural context.
3. Examining case studies of production and marketing practices of tourism related handicrafts and drawing lessons from them especially in relation to: production technologies and design aspects, financial and management aspects of production units, marketing channels and methods for optimizing the sale of handicrafts among tourists and the tourism industry.
4. Defining strategies and practical tools for governments and the private sector to strengthen the links between handicraft production and tourism, identifying the roles of the corresponding government developments of the local and incoming tourism industry and of external sources of finance and technical assistance.
The first International Conference on Tourism and Handicrafts will be attended by the secretary general of UNWTO, rewarded experts from UNWTO member states, international organizations, NGO’s, and private sector representatives in handicrafts, and senior officials of national tourism and handicraft administrators of the world, during which several lectures will be given by the participants in this respect. The conference is supported by UNESCO which is in charge of the promotion of the cultural and socio-economic role of crafts in general and the recognition of the added value of crafts in tourism development in particular.
The opening ceremony will be held on 13th of May with welcome remarks by the president of CHTO. The topic of the first session of the conference will be “Tourism as a Catalyst for Handicraft Production: The Development Perspective” with a focus on the technical issues in handicraft development. The top agenda on the second day of the conference will be “Handicrafts: Partnership Opportunities for Poverty Alleviation and Cultural Tourism”. There will also be a panel discussion on “Handicrafts Marketing and Distribution for Tourism”. During the last day of the conference, the participants will draw a conclusion and will highlight the outcomes of the conference followed by screening a video presentation, citing Tehran’s Declaration, and closing remarks by the Secretary General of UNWTO.
Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization has also devised some programs to take the participants of the conference to some of the major tourism attraction sites of and to familiarize them with the country’s tourism industry. One of the cities that the participants will particularly visit is Isfahan, which not only enjoys large numbers of historical monuments but is also famous for its handicrafts.