67th Skål International World Congress will take place in Pattaya, Thailand on 15-20 October 2006, at PEACH at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort.
Skål, founded as an international association in 1934, is the largest organisation of travel and tourism professionals in the world, embracing all sectors of the travel and tourism industry; hoteliers, travel agents, airline executives, those working for the tourism media and training for the many other branches of the industry. In the 90 countries and 480 locations where Skål exists, members are encouraged to network with each other, in line with the recent motto of “Doing Business among Friends”

Business to Business Workshop & Tourism Forum
For the first time this year the Tourism Forum during the 67th Skål World Congress will include, a Business to Business workshop which will be held on Wednesday 18 October 2006. A table will be available, to every country represented by a Skålleague attending the Congress and additional tables and chairs are available at a cost for individual set ups.

A number of keynote speakers will also address those attending the workshop on topics of interest to the travel and tourism industry. The Forum is open to all participants to the Congress.

Among the speakers, Luc Ferran will address a speech on: ‘Preventing Sexual Exploitation of Children in Tourism: Present Successes and Future Needs.’

Luc Ferran is the Programme Officer for Combating Trafficking and Child Sex Tourism at the ECPAT International Secretariat in Bangkok and represents ECPAT International on the World Tourism Organization Task Force and Executive Committee to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation in Tourism and the Steering Committee and Executive Committee for the Code of Conduct.

As an affiliate member of UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) Skål International is supporting “Ethics in Tourism” and is also actively involved for three years now in the campaign for the Protection of Children from sexual exploitation in Tourism in cooperation with ECPAT. Skål is a member of the “Task Force” and a sponsor to the “Code of Conduct”, an ECPAT project funded by UNICEF.

5th Ecotourism Awards Ceremony
One of the important highlights of the Congress will be the Ecotourism Awards Ceremony that will take place during the Opening Ceremony on Monday, October 17th in the presence of all the participants, local dignitaries and representatives of the media.
Skål International, following the United Nations declaration of 2002 as the Year of Ecotourism and the Mountains, launched the Skål International Ecotourism Awards to highlight and recognise global best practices. Skål values sustainable development in tourism as the key to the industry’s future success and considers Ecotourism as one of the main areas of sustainable development.

For this year’s competition 51 entries have been received from 28 Countries in six different categories; accommodation rural & urban, tour operators, General Countryside, Cities-Villages and Educational Programs. The evaluation is done by three independent judges from important Institutions/Organisations dealing with Eco and Sustainable tourism.

More information on Skål International and the Congress can be found at www.skal.org
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