Some 500 tourism experts from 60 countries pledged Friday to place the industry at the service of promoting peace across the world.
The Amman Declaration, drafted by the Global Summit on Peace Through Tourism, also vowed to make "a wise use of the environment" in developing tourism.
"We ... declare our commitment to building a culture of peace," the Amman Declaration said.
Participants also promised to support the principle that "the global reach of the tourist industry be utilized in promoting dialogues on peace and in bridging the have and have-not societies of the various regions of the world."
They likewise pledged to make concerted efforts to protect and restore historical monuments around the globe and make them accessible "as valuable assets for humanity and legacies for future generations."
Tourism experts pointed out that the tourism industry mobilizes one billion people annually, contributing to economic well-being worldwide.
"Peace is an essential precondition for travel and tourism and all aspects of human growth and development," the Amman Declaration said.
The conference organized by the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism (IIPT), a Canada-based non-governmental organization, opened Wednesday with a spiritual gathering in Bethany Beyond the Jordan on the eastern banks of the River Jordan where Jesus Christ was baptized.
It will also end there on Saturday with the dedication of an international peace park.
Throughout the three-day forum vibrant tribute was paid to the peacemaking efforts of Jordan's King Hussein, who died in February 1999 and whose birthday will be commemorated November 14.
High on the agenda of discussions was the question of how to "heal the wounds of conflict through tourism" -- timely because the conference coincided with violence in the neighboring Palestinian territories.
Featured speakers were to include Nobel Peace Prize winners Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Israel's Shimon Peres, but the first was kept away by a bout with the flu and the second by the violence, organizers said – AMMAN (AFP)
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