Debating Sustainable Tourism at ThiMUN
Written by Quinn Donovan.
From January 26th to January 28th, I participated in The Hague International Model United Nations conference, or ThiMUN. Students from across the globe gathered together in the World Forum for a week of heated debate and solution development. The topics ranged from strengthening national security, to protecting important cultural sites. I was assigned to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as a representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In ECOSOC, we dealt with everything from creating jobs for refugees, to sustainable tourism. After we went through the topics, each delegation chose the topic they found to be most significant, both personally and for the country or organization they were representing. Since I am an advocate for sustainability with a passion for travel, and have gained extensive knowledge in my current sustainable travel internship, I opted to participate in the sustainable tourism resolution group.
It was a welcome surprise when the delegates working on the sustainable tourism resolution had to split into three groups. This was due to the large number of people that wished to participate. So many students had a shared passion for sustainability and were bursting with excitement. They eagerly wanted to share their ideas and let their voices be heard. Together, we were able to create realistic and viable solutions that tackled the issue at hand.
Our resolution tackled the three main pillars of sustainable travel; economic, social/cultural, and environmental. Our main points were as follows:
1. Working with UN organizations such as the UN World Tourism Organization and the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization to better implement their programs;
2. Creating sectors within the UN to help reduce seasonality and improve local tourist management;
3. Reforming current sustainable tourism policies dealing with infrastructure, jobs for locals, cooperation within the tourism industry, and tax systems;
4. Maintenance of cultural, religious, and historical landmarks and sites;
5. Promoting low-carbon emission plans and improving the efficiency of transportation and transportation care;
6. Promoting ecotourism through different campaign tactics;
7. Give better representation to sustainable tourism within their political institutions;
8. Use loans provided by different Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) such as the IMF and the World Bank
In this resolution, we wanted to expand the coverage on ecotourism in the media and workplace, as well as aiding countries to better implement tourism plans to strengthen economies and local communities. Model United Nations was extremely useful in creating concrete solutions. Of course, not all of these solutions are easy, and they will take some time to implement, but it taught us students an important lesson: If we come together with a shared goal in mind, we can reach plausible solutions. Talking is extremely effective and acts as the catalyst for us to take the first steps to implement real solutions.
The evidence from this annual ThiMUN conference is overwhelming: Young people want to act. Although we don’t have the same experiences that older generations have, it is clear that if we work together, we can achieve change. We, the young people, have ideas, lots of them, and we only need the chance to show them to the world.