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Ho Chi Minh City, February 15-17, 2006 — Delegates from over 20 countries participated in three days of meetings in Ho Chi Minh City to discuss how smaller hotels and guest houses can contribute to sustainable tourism. Organizers of the seminar were MPDF and Worldhotel-link.com (WHL), a Hong Kong-based company that sets up and supports internet portals that enable smaller hotels and guesthouses to market themselves over the Internet. MPDF and Worldhotel-link define sustainable tourism as tourism that is sustainable economically, environmentally and socially. For a particular destination, this means protecting the natural environment, historic or cultural assets and/or contributing to the local community. Over the three days of meetings, representatives from both organizations explained why sustainable tourism is so important, provided worldwide examples, and introduced a sustainability rating system for hotels and guesthouses marketing through WHL web portals. Delegates attending the meetings included operators of Worldhotel-link web portals in the Mekong Region, and from as far as away as the Caribbean, Macedonia and Samoa, as well as several respected tourism industry experts. MPDF has launched pilots to promote sustainable tourism in three historic Mekong communities that are under pressure from rapidly-growing tourism. The first pilot began in Siem Reap near Angkor Wat in November 2005, and two more are now underway in Vietnam and Lao PDR. In Vietnam, the target is Hoi An, and in Lao PDR the target is the ancient capital of Luang Prabang. |    |
