Pacific Youth Forum Sets Bold Agenda for Sustainable Tourism in the Region

Over 100 passionate youth representatives and stakeholders who participated in the inaugural Pacific Youth Forum on Sustainable Tourism from across the region shared their common vision to co-create a brighter, more sustainable future for their communities, cultures, and natural wonders of the Pacific at the Pacific Sustainable Leadership Summit in French Polynesia.

The Youth Forum’s Outcomes Statement, which was recently presented at the 2023 Pacific Sustainable Tourism Leadership Summit in Tahiti, boldly outlined a set of visionary recommendations. These recommendations are listed below :

• Encourage the involvement and recognition of youths in national and regional policy planning including governance structures, as well as in tourism development, particularly those from rural and island communities.
• Increase opportunities for building youth capacity in leadership and entrepreneurship skills, including access to green financing opportunities.
• Call for more forums and research to capture the challenges, needs, and abilities of youth in tourism planning and development.
• Foster local partnerships with a strong emphasis on involving youth in the tourism, agriculture and fisheries industries and promoting farm-totable concepts.
• Urge youth to strengthen their traditional knowledge and celebrate their cultural heritage as part of our tourism offering.
• Leverage technology to strengthen cultural heritage as part of our tourism offering.
• Ensure that the integration of cultural heritage within tourism is community-informed.
• Recognize the importance of increased research in understanding community needs. This is vital for changing mindsets regarding the significance of tourism in enhancing livelihoods.
• Promote indigenous and community-based tourism as an approach to sustainable tourism and implement tourist activities that support daily household activities rather than disrupt them.
• Call for the development of credit score systems to monitor the contributions from large hotels and resorts towards their local community’s wellbeing and livelihoods.
• Advocate for the tourism industry to respond to the climate emergency and disaster response efforts in local communities.
• Integrate tourist activities into recovery efforts aimed at restoring our natural resources impacted by development pressures.
• Enhance support for tertiary education on sustainable tourism development, with the ultimate goal of fostering a tourism industry that respects youth, local communities and natural resources of our Pacific nations, and to also broadens the youths’ abilities and expertise in lead tourism policy and management roles.
• Encourage self-sufficiency in the local communities by indigenizing the producers, the market, and consumers, thereby increasing resilience for the industry in the face of economic and external crises.

SPTO’s Sustainable Tourism Officer, Catherine Mara, stands united with enthusiastic youth participants at the Pacific Sustainable Tourism Summit 2023 in French Polynesia

The inaugural Pacific Youth Forum on Sustainable Tourism held virtually through two online platforms, conducting webinars to unite youth representatives from the tourism sector from September 27th to October 4th, 2023. This forward-looking initiative, in line with the Pacific Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework (PSTPF) by the SPTO, recognized the importance of youth involvement in tourism policy and destination development. The next Youth Forum will be an in-person in 2025.