Under the motto “Protect and Prosper”, the World Heritage presentation at the ITB demonstrated to the tourism sector that much has been achieved over the last five years by working together across the three countries in developing a joint framework for sustainable tourism. This provides benefits for nature conservation and at the same time offers potential for the tourism sector to develop sustainable tourism that can contribute to the heritage values.

ITB is an ideal forum for underscoring the need to engage with the tourism sector in order to ensure that these key stakeholders fully acknowledge and embrace their role in conserving and maintaining the integrity of the Wadden Sea World Heritage property. In addition to its info booth and photo exhibition, the Secretariat, with the support of many partners from the three countries concerned, organized a number of events, such as a panel discussion on the sustainable Tourism Strategy, involving experts from all three Wadden Sea Countries as well as UNESCO and the Secretary to CWSS, Rüdiger Strempel.

The complete Wadden Sea World Heritage programme can be downloaded here.

In line with the motto Protect and Prosper, developed by CWSS, ITB therefore helped the Secretariat raise awareness of the wealth of opportunity offered by the Wadden Sea World Heritage property while stressing that protection of the Outstanding Universal Value is vital to safeguarding the unique character and value of the region, which provides benefits for present and future generations.

The activities were co-founded by “PROWAD – Protect and Prosper: Sustainable Tourism in the Wadden Sea” a project of the Interreg IVB North Sea Region Programme (www.prowad.org).