UNESCO certifies Phuket as City of Gastronomy 2015

PHUKET, THAILAND, December 28 (TNA) - The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has certified Thailand's southern resort Phuket Province as a City of Gastronomy, the first city receiving such the honour in Thailand and in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Phuket Governor Jamroen Thippayapongthada told journalists on Tuesday that the Nakhon Phuket Municipality received a letter from UNESCo Director-General Irina Bokova on December 11, 2015, informing that UNESCO's specialists' committee has voted Phuket to be the City of Gastronomy 2015. The UNESCO letter said Phuket is now the newest member of UNESCO's Creative Cities Network for Gastromony and the Nakhon Phuket Municipality is also allowed to use UNESCO's name and logo for launching its PR programs on food promotion. The governor noted that there are a total of 226 Creative Cities having been praised by UNESCO, but only 18 of them have been certified as the Cities of Gastronomy, including Phuket. The governor proclaimed that Phuket is, thus, proud of having been the first city in Thailand and in ASEAN to be chosen by the UN agency in the category after its nomination for three consecutive years. The governor explained that UNESCO's Creative Cities Program has been launched in parallel with the Natural and Historical World Heritages Program, but the former represents intangible culture and combines with modern creativity and innovations based on foundamental and traditional identity of each chosen city. According to the governor, the UNESCO's certification will help boost the local economy of Phuket through expanding local tourism in several dimensions, namely innovative cuisine, based on the provincial sustainable tourism promotional strategies, covering marine, cultural and historical tourist destinations, which is also in line with the government's policy on promoting trade and investment, in parallel with adding values of Thai tourism cities to help the Thai Kingdom earn more national income. (TNA)