Would you like to adopt an elephant online in your travels? How can the cultural tourism industry find more opportunities on its way to sustainable development? Recently, "the Belt and Road" Young Power on Global Governance: Lancang-Mekong Youth Sustainable Cultural Tourism Seminar, co-organised by Guangzhou Foundation for International Exchange and Cooperation　and Davos Global Shapers Community Guangzhou Hub , was held at Haizhu Lake Park in Guangzhou.

The central discussion of the seminar was on how to develop sustainable cultural tourism routes based on the characteristics of countries. Ling Zejing, the founder of a leading volunteer travel organisation in China—EASIN China Volunteer Travel , inspired many of the youth delegates at the event with her experience of helping revamp local elephant camps in Thailand.

Based on her experience, Ling introduced that during the epidemic, she once received a request for help from a nonprofit institution rescuing elephants in Thailand, who asked her if she could buy two elephants for 1 million yuan. Since the Thai institution could no longer keep these two elephants, there was a risk that the elephants would be sent back to the animal performance business, if without in-time rescue. So, Ling and her team then came up with a plan to create a cultural and creative product about the two elephants and sponsor them as a project.

After the elephants took a medicinal bath, Ling invited the mahouts  at the elephant camp to wear white T-shirts to hug them. And the traces left on the elephants by the bath were transferred intact onto the T-shirt, so "we named the T-shirt 'Traces of Embrace'. The cultural and creative products with this story sold 500,000 sales on an online platform, thus helping the institution with the financial emergency."

According to Ling, the crucial point in sustainable cultural tourism is that, if product A is priced the same as product B, while the latter is more friendly to the world, then product B is a better choice for both travelers and the tourism industry.

旅行中认养一头大象，你会考虑吗？一场关于可持续文旅的跨国讨论在广州举行

旅游中，如果可以云认养一头大象，你愿意吗？文旅产业如何在实现可持续发展中找到更多可能性？日前，由广州国际交流合作基金会、达沃斯全球杰出青年社区·广州社区联合主办的“‘一带一路’·青年共话全球治理——澜湄青年可持续文旅研讨会”在广州市海珠湖公园举办。

当天最核心的讨论在于如何结合国家的特色，制定相应的可持续文旅路线。来自EASIN国际义工旅行的创始人凌则婧以她在泰国帮助当地改造大象营地的经历，启发了现场不少的青年代表。

凌则婧介绍，基于过往的经历，在疫情期间，她收到来自泰国一个救助大象公益机构的求救，对方问她能否花费100万元把两头大象买走？这两头大象，这一机构已经养不起了，如果不及时救助，它们有可能会再次回到动物表演的行业中。她随即和她的团队想出了一个方案，打造关于这两头大象的文创产品，以项目形式助养这两头大象。

凌则婧请大象营地的人在大象洗完药浴后，穿一件白色的T恤拥抱大象，药浴留在大象身上的痕迹，完整地转移到了T恤上，“我们把这件T恤命名为‘拥抱的痕迹’。带着这个故事的文创产品，在某网络平台卖出了50万的销量，解决了这个机构的燃眉之急。”

凌则婧认为，可持续文旅中非常关键的一点在于：当A产品与B产品同样价格时，如果B产品对世界更友好，那它对于旅游业和旅行者而言都是一个更好的选择。

文｜羊城晚报全媒体记者 谭铮
通讯员｜黄嘉雯
图｜主办方供图
翻译｜Teresa chen
校对 | 周勇