Panel of Mayors

Wednesday June 20, 16:30-18:30

Korston, plenary session

Moderator: Eugenio Yunis, Head, Sustainable Tourism section, World Tourism Organization

Rapporteur: Patrice Beghain, Adjoint au Maire, City of Lyon

(conducted in English with simultaneous translation in all Congress languages)

To address the main issues faced by mayors of World Heritage Cities in managing tourism, a panel of mayors has been organized so that a select group of mayors can discuss – in front of the plenary audience -- how they address the challenges that tourism poses in their respective cities. The discussion will center on the question: “Is tourism enough?”

Participating panelists come from three main categories of cities:

· Tourism-intense cities, where tourism provides a major source of municipal revenue;

· Multi-functional cities, where other economic activities exist beside those related to tourism;

· Tourism-developing cities, where the role of tourism in economic activity is growing, but is not yet at an ‘intense’ level.

16:30 – 16:40	Introduction and presentations of panel members
16:40 – 16:45	Public fund generated and devoted for Heritage conservation To what extent the arrival of increased numbers of tourists to your city has permitted to raise additional financial resources to protect, preserve and restore the built environment, and especially the buildings, edifices and monuments that are listed as World Heritage sites? What mechanisms have been used by your Municipality to collect these funds (e.g. direct tourism taxes, increased income tax earnings, financial contributions by tourists or tourism companies, other). What percentage do they represent of total public funds, municipal and national, devoted to conserve the heritage of your city?
16:45 – 17:05	Panel member responses
17:05 – 17:10	“Carrying capacity” The World Tourism Organization as well as tourism planners recommend the establishment of tourism limits, expressed in the concept of “carrying capacity”, i.e. the maximum number of tourists that a destination (city, beach or other) can accommodate at any one time without negatively impacting on its natural and built environment, and without affecting the social structures of the resident population. Has your city established such a limit and how was this done? Has this limit been respected by hotel developers, tour operators and other businesses? Has the municipality established the necessary regulations to have this limit respected by all stakeholders?
17:10 – 17:30	Panel member responses
17:30 – 17:35	Synthesis
17:35 – 17:40	Questions from the audience
17:40 – 18:00	Panel member responses
18:00 – 18:05	Questions from the audience
18:05 – 18:25	Panel member responses
18:25 – 18:30	Final remarks

Participating Mayors:

Cuenca, Ecuador , Marcelo Cabrera Palacios, Alcalde
Hué, Vietnam, representative to be designated
Kazan, Russia, Marat Zagidullov, Executive Committee Chairman
Napoli, Italy, Rosa Iervolino Russo, Sindaco di Napoli
Rhodes, Greece, George Giannopoullos, City councilman, former Mayor of Rhodes
Sana’a, Yemen, Abdullah Zaid Ayssa, Director, General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities
Vilnius, Lithuania, Arturas Zuokas, Mayor