Summit Overview
The W.T.A.C.H. Global Leaders Summit is the only global event where international tourism executives gather together with members of the global cultural and heritage sectors to explore how best to collaborate to achieve the goal of both groups: That being, the protection and preservation of built and intangible assets, and the communities that sustain them. It is recognised that ‘Travel’ is the ultimate agent of soft power. Especially travel to experience other cultures and learn about local heritage. Travel enhances socio-cultural cooperation, creates citizen-to-citizen diplomacy, and it makes the foreign familiar through cultural interactions. But for all the good that travel can do, it can also create immense harm. Singular marketing messages can result in un-managed consumer demand that leaves heritage sites and destinations crowded, dirty and damaged.
Travel can bring diminishment of natural resources and major cost of living increases that can overwhelm and drive out local populations and the heritage they keep. It is these issues that the W.T.A.C.H. GLS24 seeks to address with the potential outcomes identified resulting in alliances that actively utilise some of the concepts and ideas presented in Johannesburg.
The W.T.A.C.H. Global Leaders Summit
In October 2024 the World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage ‘W.T.A.C.H.’ will host the Global Leaders Summit (WTACH GLS24), being a two day event held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Summit will convene public and private sector stakeholders to address critical issues concerning the future of cultural tourism and the communities living in, around, and within global heritage sites.
The gathering will bring together key decision makers and thought leaders from international organisations, industry and associated sectors, and academia, to collaborate on how tourism companies, development organisations, and other related stakeholders can play a greater role in supporting heritage communities build better, more equitable and sustainable lives.
