New Zealand's Kaikoura on the South Island is to stage the world's first international Green Globe sustainable tourism conference next March, Kaikoura District Council Chief Executive Stuart Grant has announced.

The South Island-based local daily The Marlborough Express quoted Grant as saying Friday that the conference would bring government officials, business people, academics and specialists involved in sustainable tourism from throughout the world to Kaikoura.

Green Globe is a global tourism certification program that looks at environmentally, social and cultural improvements at a global, national and local level

Kaikoura became the first tourist resort in New Zealand and the second community in the world to earn Green Globe status last year.

Grant hoped the conference would lead to the establishment of a worldwide sustainable tourism network.

"The world's first Green Globe conference will enable people to exchange ideas about sustainable tourism and to hear what is involved in becoming a Green Globe company and community," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2003)