On 2 March 2023, Sam Tanson, Minister for Culture, Lydie Polfer, Mayor of the City of Luxembourg, and Serge Wilmes, alderman in charge of Tourism, congratulated the 87 official guides of the City of Luxembourg who had successfully completed the training courses organised by the Ministry of Culture on "Luxembourg: old quarters and fortifications", classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as the brand new tour entitled UNESCO4Kids.
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Group photo
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Speech by Sam Tanson, Minister for Culture
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Simone Beck, President of the National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO
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(from l. to r.) Lydie Polfer, Mayor of the City of Luxembourg; Simone Beck, President of the National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO; Sam Tanson, Minister for Culture
Raising awareness of the outstanding universal value of the "Luxembourg: old quarters and fortifications" site, its surroundings and the characteristics that have led to its inscription on the World Heritage List is one of the requirements for the management of this UNESCO site.
The Ministry of Culture has developed several itineraries to discover the history, but also the historic urban landscape of "Luxembourg: old quarters and fortifications":
The City of Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, has set up a "UNESCO Visitors' Centre" at the Lëtzebuerg City Museum In 2018, the Ministry of Culture offered a first specialised training on the UNESCO heritage to the tourist guides of the Luxembourg City Tourist Office.
"As the UNESCO offer is diversifying and the number of official and private guides is increasing, we would like all the guides who directly or indirectly present the "Luxembourg City: Old Town and Fortifications" heritage to have the same level of knowledge of the UNESCO protection and to be aware of the messages that UNESCO conveys at a global level," explained Sam Tanson.
"After two years of pandemic, we are happy to see that the number of tourists in our capital is constantly increasing and we are quite optimistic that the 87 guides we have awarded today will contribute to making 2023 a very successful year for the capital's tourism sector," concluded Lydie Polfer.
New UNESCO4Kids visit
The UNESCO4Kids training has been reserved exclusively for the 25 official guides of the City of Luxembourg working for the Luxembourg City Tourist Office. This new training enables them to propose a new offer to groups of young people aged between 6 and 9 or between 10 and 12 years old, to discover the "urban historical landscape" of "Luxembourg: old quarters and fortifications", based on a pedagogic approach developed by the Council of Europe in collaboration with UNE. This encourages the interactive discovery of cultural and natural heritage through both senses and mind.
Brochures for the Promenade UNESCO, UNESCO Bike Tour, UNESCO pour tous, UNESCO Leichte Sprache and UNESCO4Kids tours can be picked up at the Luxembourg City Tourist Office reception desk or booked with a specially trained guide: 30, place Guillaume II, L-1648 Luxembourg, tel: 22 08 09.
Press release by the Ministry of Culture