UNWTO’s Lipman now an adjunct professor for Australian university

By eTN Staff Writer

United Nations World Tourism Organization's special advisor to the secretary-general has been appointed adjunct professor at Griffith University (in Australia).

Griffith University, located in Australia’s Gold Coast, has added long serving international tourism champion Geoffrey Lipman as its newest adjunct professor.

At a recent ceremony on the Gold Coast, Lipman received the appointment upon the recommendation of the head of the university’s Department of Tourism, Leisure, Hotel and Sport Management head, Professor Michael Davidson, and, the vice chancellor for the university’s Business Department, Professor Michael Powell.

Lipman’s appointment was held in conjunction with the Australian government hosting of the APEC Tourism Working Group.

The vice chancellor of Griffith University, Professor Ian O’Conner, said that by making Geoffrey Lipman an adjunct professor he will contribute to advising the department on the major issues and directions in global tourism which will influence the research agenda for academics. “It is also our aim to become more active in the Asia Pacific region by assisting the development of tourism policy and subsequent growth in various countries,” said Prof. O’Çonnor

Geoffrey Lipman has been at the forefront of global tourism for almost 40 years, as a senior director within the International Air Transport Association, as the founding president of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), and as a special advisor to the secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

As president of the WTTC, a global alliance of tourism CEOs, Lipman was instrumental in positioning tourism as a mainstream industry within the global economy in promoting the fair and progressive liberalization of aviation and inclusion of all tourism and air transport services in the World Trade Organization’s negotiations.

Since attending the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, Lipman has focused much of his attention on sustainable tourism, establishing the Green Globe environmental program for consumers, corporations and communities.

His vast experience in working with the private sector and in government relations has been applied to actions to eliminate barriers to trade. This is especially important to the developing world where all poor countries have a potential for tourism exports.

Lipman has long been an advocate of support for developing countries establishing within IATA a program for developing nations airlines(PDNA) and conceiving the UNWTO’s Sustainable Tourism Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) Initiative.

These days, as the assistant secretary general of the Madrid-based UNWTO, he is the official spokesperson for the world’s largest intergovernmental tourism organization, representing global tourism at the highest of levels within individual nations and various international forums.

Printable Version | published Jun 06, 2007

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