Muscat Declaration on Built Environments for Sustainable Tourism

The WTO Conference on Built Environments for Sustainable Tourism (BEST) was successfully held in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, between 6-8 February 2005. The Sultanate recently joined the World Tourism Organization. 

Distinguished speakers from all over the world, including senior government officials, tourism professionals, urban planners, architects and managers of cultural sites, presented interesting examples of re-development of ancient buildings for tourism purposes, design of new tourism facilities and other tourism projects contributing to sustainable development.

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli said in his opening statement that "architecture and tourism are closely interrelated". "Because the built heritage is certainly one of the main attractions of world tourism ... because tourism creates significant demand for the construction sector at destinations ... and because tourism, if developed in a responsible, balanced and sustainable manner can become a driving force for environmental protection, heritage conservation and cultural pride."

"If governments abdicate their responsibility for sustainable tourism development - destinations will be nibbled away by special interests," he underlined. "Unplanned development - as we have seen too often in the past - means chaos and depletion of the fragile resources on which our industry relies."

The debates held among the more than 200 participants from 35 countries helped to clarify the role of tourism in ensuring sustainable urban development, cultural heritage preservation and benefits for host communities. It was stressed that governments at all levels, and especially at the local level, had to adapt the recommendations of the Conference to their specific conditions, cultural characteristics and development aims. The conclusions and recommendations were embedded in the Muscat Declaration adopted at the Conference.

In her opening speech, Ms. Rajiha Abdul Ameer Ali, Minister of tourism of Oman, stressed that "this conference is a unique opportunity for architects, tourism experts, policy makers and professionals from different disciplines to get involved in a constructive dialogue and to define BEST practice in field of built environments, which is capable more than any other setting to demonstrate the principles of sustainability, cultural diversity and hence contributing to the creation of a positive destination image".

Representatives of the WTO hailed the Declaration as a coherent set of guiding principles and policies that would give additional impulse to the collective goal of promoting sustainable tourism. WTO's Eugenio Yunis, Chief of Sustainable Tourism Development and Amr Abdel Ghaffar, Representative for the Middle East and North Africa addressed the closing ceremony. Delegates also paid tribute to the Omani government's initiative in convening this first-ever international forum on Built Environments for Sustainable Tourism.

The Muscat Declaration calls upon governments, tourism authorities and the tourism private sector to, among other things, promote the use of strategic tourism planning procedures for ensuring sustainable tourism development for the built environment.

It also calls for the promotion and establishment of partnerships among tourism stakeholders, public and private, in order to ensure an orderly and sustainable development of tourism infrastructures that respect local cultures and economies. The charter seeks to promote the use of quality and adapted modern architecture and infrastructure in the development of tourism facilities in a way respectful of the built or natural environment, reinforcing positive destination images. It urges authorities and the industry to monitor the impact of tourism on the built environment from the standpoints of economic, cultural and environmental sustainability.

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