Message from Secretary General World Tourism Day, 2006
is not surprising that the last UNWTO General Assembly decided to dedicate World Tourism Day this year to a brief and powerful slogan: "Tourism Enriches." As, through tourism, more and more countries are coming out of the list of Least Developed Countries established by UNCTAD, the communities discover a better life, a life where they can be proud of their country and their culture and where small businesses thriving in traditionally poor societies.
if managed under the Code of Ethics for Tourism, tourism is really an instrument for achieving Millennium Development Goals United Nations. But what exactly have we learned since it launched the first campaign "Tourism Enriches" at the World Conference on Tourism Communications, TOURCOM-in 2004?
is no doubt that tourism keeps the world economy moving. It is the first game of international trade, generates the bulk of export earnings and employs millions of people. Most of those jobs in family businesses are small or medium size.
Tourism is fundamental to the balance of payments of many countries, especially small developing nations for which is often the only way to compete in the dynamic services sector worldwide. Jobs and businesses often created in the most underdeveloped regions, helping to expand economic opportunities throughout the country and providing an incentive to stay in rural areas.
However, the enrichment should not be understood solely in economic terms. The environment and local culture benefit when government revenue derived from goods and services related to tourism are used to restore monuments, open museums and state parks. And as tourism grows, so does the need to improve infrastructure: construction of new airports, roads, ports, sewer systems and water treatment plants in turn improve the lives of local people.
Tourism is an important human dimension. In Mexico, people are learning to make traditional products, while the women of Central Asia have turned to weave rugs with geometric like they used to their nomadic ancestors to sell to tourists. In the pampas of Argentina, a group of gauchos dance interprets heirs of their grandparents for visitors, another example of how tourism helps preserve culture. And in Malaysia, a fisherman who had no luck in the labor market in the capital, has returned to family land and traditional fishing methods to serve meals at a beach resort, recently opened.
guests and hosts benefit mutually. Even tourists on package tours to absorb some of the surrounding culture by attending a party in a village, eating at a local restaurant or bargaining for a souvenir.
overworked parents who spend a week with his son on a tropical beach, a family that shares an interest in visiting the ruins of a past civilization or two long-separated siblings who gather at a favorite of childhood holidays are situations that reinforce the ties that make up the very essence of society.
But, above all tourism enriches families and communities that would be much poorer spiritually and materially, without the opportunities offered.
