Created and introduced in Brazil in 2003, the World Tourism Forum (WTF) is a permanent, ongoing movement mobilizing and articulating people and organizations, at global scale, for the benefit of one cause: develop tourism interfering positively on its conceptions and practices, in such a way as to promote conditions for Peace and Sustainable Development, covering Social Development, Appreciation of Cultural Diversity, Preservation of Biodiversity and Economic Development.

These objectives are pursued through three strategies:

• establishing dialogue and accomplishments through the Network of Networks focused on its themes;

• promoting Illustrative Projects, concrete and innovative actions that generate best practice on the essential issues of the movement; and

• organizing Annual Summits that focus on consolidating, evaluating and disseminating new practices and solutions that can advance the WTF’s cause.

The World Tourism Forum is a joint initiative of three groups of partners:

• civil society, represented by the Tourism for Peace and Sustainable Development Foundation, specifically created to run and house the governance of the Forum, which brings together an expressive cast of organizations from different countries, partners of the movement: private businesses, social organizations, as well as governmental and intergovernmental institutions, as follows;

• the WTF’s host country, which up until 2006 was Brazil, represented by the Ministry of Tourism, with the support of the Ministries of Culture, the Environment, Labor and Employment, and Sports; and

• the United Nations, represented by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), with the support of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

The Forum’s creator and executive partner is the Hospitality Institute, a Brazilian NGO created in 1997, that focuses on the quality of development in tourism.