UNESCO at the world’s largest tourism fair - ITB Berlin 2017

From 8 to 12 March 2017, the Wadden Sea World Heritage site is organizing a stand on sustainable tourism at the world’s largest tourism fair ITB Berlin.

Partnering with the UNESCO World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism Programme, the Wadden Sea offers a rich and diverse programme around the motto “People. Protecting. Places” in hall 4.1.b, booth 228 at the Berlin fair grounds. The programme includes activities for both tourism professionals and individual visitors, professional workshops and presentations, and showcases of best practices of sustainable tourism and cooperating across national borders. The Wadden Sea World Heritage and its co-exhibitors (the Messel Pit World Heritage site, Fondazione Dolomiti, Die Nordsee GmbH, PFD Publication – World Heritage Review) have created a rich and diverse fair programme with different overarching themes:

 8 March

Three workshops will be organised by the German Commission for UNESCO, World Heritage Trainees, Zentrum Welterbe Bamberg, Young Heritage Experts, and Tourismus-Akademie Nordwest e.V. focusing on education and communication at World Heritage sites.

 9 March

The Wadden Sea World Heritage stand will hold a round table on sustainable development. Speakers include Harald Marencic, Deputy Executive Secretary, CWSS, Wadden Sea World Heritage, Peter Debrine from the UNESCO World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism programme, and Mariagrazia Santoro, President of Fondazione Dolomiti UNESCO, and its Director Marcella Morandini, representing the Dolomites World Heritage site.

 10 March

The Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative will be showcased at the 12^th PowWow. Specialists from Sierra Leone, as well as from the Danish, German and Dutch Wadden Sea regions will discuss bird watching and tourism and the importance of transboundary cooperation along the flyways of migratory birds.

 During the weekend, individual visitors can experience the Wadden Sea through a broad range of activities, including games about beach finds and bird migration, a lottery and a photo shoot in front of a Wadden Sea scenery. There are tastings of typical Wadden Sea products, such as honey, and oysters. A highlight of the weekend is the premiere of “Clupea harengus - Der Hering”. The one-person play by “Frollein Brehm’s Life of Animals” on the herring and its habitat will be performed for the first time at the adventure stage in hall 4.1 on Sunday, 12 March.