Down to Earth for Tourism: UNWTO

Down to Earth for Tourism was launched at the Rio +20 United Nation conference on sustainable development. The project is a Swedish initiative being developed together with UNWTO and recognized internationally as a high-profile project with space as a catalyst for innovative solutions for sustainable tourism development.

Down to Earth for Tourism aims to develop tools and models for innovative solutions that can be used globally and help countries, regions and future tourist destinations, accommodation and tourist attractions towards sustainable development. Pilot projects have already been carried out in China and Scandinavia and are now taken another step towards new pilot project around the world.

Down to Earth for Tourism is an interdisciplinary program that involves different disciplines as tourism, space sector, industry and universities / academy across borders in innovation processes to identify sustainable solutions to future challenges for sustainable tourism development. The project is based on a methodology developed by the Swedish aerospace design company Umbilical Design, where technology and knowledge transfer from space to create new innovations and products.

Project Down to Earth for Tourism deleted from “The astronauts lifestyle”, that is, astronauts living conditions in space. By seeing how recycling thinking applied in space around the material, technology and limited resources such as water, this approach embraced sustainable tourism development. The methodology of the project, Down to Earth for Tourism is based on a creative innovation process where different disciplines meet and interact to produce new innovations and ideas with a focus on sustainability. Working in a collaborative process creates opportunities to address future challenges on climate change, population growth and environmental impact.

With space as a catalyst for innovation, the aim is for “Down to Earth for Tourism” to help achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets.

Link to project page: www.unwto.org