Symposium reviews prospects of environmental tourism [Archives:2006/953/Local News]

SANA'A, June 6 ) Organized by the Ministry of Tourism, a symposium on the 'Role of Environmental Tourism and the Media in Protecting the Environment and Developing Local Communities concluded last Sunday. Lasting two days, the symposium was attended by a group of specialists and academics.

Nabeel Al-Faqih, Minister of Tourism, highlighted the importance of the symposium as it will help to extend social awareness of environmental tourism and promote the tourism sector. He went on to emphasize that the media will play an important part in promoting environmental concepts and advertising the tourism sector.

Furthermore, Al-Faqih called the establishment of a tourism television channel that would make people aware of the importance of tourism and the promotion of the culture and history of Yemen.

Many working papers were presented that discussed the significance of media messages, focusing on the content of the message, designating target groups, and the current role played by local media in defining and spreading the concept of environmental tourism.

The papers also looked at how to make known the importance of environmental tourism, as well as on protecting the environment, developing local communities, and advertising the tourism industry; in addition to the myriad ways goal-oriented media messages can be produced.

Some of the papers presented examined the concept of sustainable tourism in protected nature parks in Yemen and tourism products that could be developed to entice foreigners to visit Yemen. Suggestions from the papers included achieving sustainable environmental tourism by focusing on desert, marine, and montance tourism.
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