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World Tourism Day 2021: Tourism for Inclusive Growth
‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’ is the theme for World Tourism Day 2021. This year’s official celebration will be hosted by Cote d’Ivoire, celebrating tourism’s ability to drive inclusive development and the role it plays in promoting respect while generating opportunities for many millions across the globe.
We need you - to fully showcase the potential of tourism to create jobs for all and bring communities together.
This year World Tourism Day holds more significance as the theme is 'Tourism for Inclusive Growth'. As the world opens up once again with fewer restrictions, the theme focuses on the importance of inclusive recovery and ensuring that no one is left behind. Additionally, the day also highlights the importance of the travel industry in preserving and promoting culture and heritage. The official website of UN said, "UNWTO ensures every part of the sector has a say in its future - including communities, minorities, youth and those who would otherwise be at risk of being left behind."
UNWTO has therefore designated World Tourism Day 2021 as a day to focus on Tourism for Inclusive Growth. This is an opportunity to look beyond tourism statistics and acknowledge that, behind every number, there is a person. UNWTO invites its Member States, as well as non-members, sister UN agencies, businesses and individuals to celebrate tourism’s unique ability to ensure that nobody is left behind as the world begins to open up again and look to the future.
World Tourism Day, celebrated each year on 27 September, is the global observance day fostering awareness of tourism’s social, cultural, political and economic value and the contribution that the sector can make towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive social and economic impact. Both developed and developing economies have been hit. And marginalized groups and the most vulnerable have been hit hardest of all. The restart of tourism will help kickstart recovery and growth. It is essential that the benefits this will bring are enjoyed widely and fairly.
Official Messages
The human desire to travel and explore is universal, which is why tourism must be open for everyone to enjoy.
So too must the many social and economic benefits that tourism brings be available to everybody.
World Tourism Day 2021 highlights the power of ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’.
Official Message by the Secretary-General, UNWTO
The human desire to travel and explore is universal, which is why tourism must be open for everyone to enjoy.
So too must the many social and economic benefits that tourism brings be available to everybody.
World Tourism Day 2021 highlights the power of ‘Tourism for Inclusive Growth’.
By celebrating this day, we state our commitment that, as tourism grows, the benefits that come will be felt at every level of our broad and diverse sector, from the biggest airline to the smallest family business.
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Today, we reaffirm our pledge that, as we move forward and work to build a more prosperous and peaceful world through tourism, we will not leave anyone behind.
It is a pledge that is both timely and necessary. The pause in international travel caused by the pandemic has made clear the relevance of tourism to our societies.
The economic and social impact has been felt far beyond the sector itself. And in many places, the most vulnerable members of society have been hit hardest of all.
Working for inclusive growth means getting everybody behind a better vision for tourism. Only this way can tourism’s restart reach the people and communities that need it the most right now and build the foundations for a better future for all.
I welcome all our Members, Affiliate Members, governments, destinations and businesses to join us in marking this day, celebrated as tourism’s importance to every part of our societies is more evident than ever before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DfUzRRetOY&t=26s
Official Message by the Secretary-General, UN
On World Tourism Day, we recognize the power and potential of tourism to advance prosperity and drive inclusive, sustainable development. The tourism sector touches almost every part of our economies and societies, enabling historically marginalized people and those at risk of being left behind to benefit from development that is local and direct.
Tourism continues to suffer enormously under the COVID-19 pandemic: in the first five months of this year, international tourist arrivals decreased by a staggering 95 per cent in parts of the world and forecasts suggest a loss of over $4 trillion to global GDP by the end of 2021. This is a major shock for developed economies, but for developing countries, it is an emergency.
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Climate change is also severely affecting many major tourist destinations, particularly Small Island Developing States where tourism accounts for nearly 30 percent of economic activity.
With many millions of livelihoods in jeopardy, it is time to rethink, transform, and safely restart tourism. With the right safeguards in place, the tourism sector can provide decent jobs, helping to build resilient, sustainable, gender-equal, inclusive economies and societies that work for everyone. This means targeted action and investment to shift towards green tourism – with high emitting sectors, including air and sea transport and hospitality, moving towards carbon neutrality.
And it means giving everybody a say in how tourism shapes the future of our societies and our planet. Only through inclusive decision-making can we ensure inclusive, sustainable growth, deliver on the promise of the SDGs, and transform tourism to fulfil its potential as an engine for prosperity, a vehicle for integration, a means to protect our planet and biodiversity, and an agent of cultural understanding between peoples.
On World Tourism Day, PM Modi says hospitals and hospitality work in tandem
PM Modi's comments came on World Tourism Day, which is observed to stress the potential of tourism and raise awareness of its importance in affecting the international community’s social, cultural, political and economic values.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said places with more vaccination and better healthcare infrastructure will attract more tourists, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, as he stressed that the hospital and hospitality sectors work in tandem. “It is also a coincidence that today's program is being organised on World Tourism Day. Some may wonder what does health care program have to do with tourism?,” PM Modi asked while addressing the launch event of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. “But health has a very strong relationship with tourism. Because when our health infrastructure is integrated and strengthened, it also affects the tourism sector in a positive way,” he pointed out.
He asked whether a tourist will want to visit a place that doesn’t have good health infrastructure. “And after corona, it has become all the more important. Tourists will feel safe in places that have vaccinated the most number of people. And you must have noticed that in places like Himachal, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Goa and Andaman and Nicobar—the tourist destination states—there has been a stress on the pace of vaccination so that tourists have a sense of trust,” he added.
Also read | Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: All you need to know
World Tourism Day is observed to stress the potential of tourism and raise awareness of its importance in affecting the international community’s social, cultural, political and economic values. This year the theme of World Tourism Day is 'Tourism for Inclusive Growth’ and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has urged businesses, tourists, UN agencies, member states and non-members to "celebrate tourism’s unique ability to ensure that nobody is left behind as the world begins to open up again and look to the future".
PM invites people to discover the beauty of Incredible India on World Tourism Day
Message from Mr. Siandou Fofana Minister of Tourism and Leisure of Côte d'Ivoire
The official celebration of World Tourism Day in Côte d'Ivoire, around the theme "Tourism for inclusive development", resonates as an anthem of unity of the entire global tourism community, under the auspices of the UNWTO. It is a new opportunity for the revival of our sector, with a view to the prosperity of our valued populations. Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry had demonstrated, through its transversality and job-creation capacity, that it was a powerful lever to fight against poverty and to promote the social and economic inclusion of vulnerable groups. This is the precisely the meaning and essence of the inclusive nature of Tourism.
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Moreover, with a clear and ambitious strategy called "Sublime Côte d'Ivoire", our country, which opens its arms to you with its legendary hospitality, has proved that there is enormous tourism potential that is just waiting to be realized in order to allow the harmonious development of the territories, offer a reservoir of jobs and constitute a source of revenue and value creation for the State and communities, without losing sight of the exigencies of sustainable and equitable tourism. Côte d'Ivoire also intends to respond to the major challenges of digitalizing the tourism sector by promoting startups and through a more resolute policy to deploy digital technology at all levels of the value chain.
During this pandemic crisis, our country and the tourism sector have shown their resilience. In this regard, the attractiveness of Côte d'Ivoire as a destination has been repeatedly reaffirmed, and thus we welcome you with open arms and with the smile that befits our hospitable tradition. Rich in its diversity and the talent of our artisans, Côte d'Ivoire will offer a sublime experience with its inexhaustible creativity.
A land of hope and hospitality, it is the embodiment of the capacity for resilience that tourism is showing in the face of COVID-19, thanks to the combined actions of all public actors with a more ambitious and dynamic policy that has unleashed the energy of all strata of society.
Indeed, dear tourism stakeholders, World Tourism Day will be an opportunity to think about the tourism of tomorrow. Côte d'Ivoire, a country of hospitality, a land of hope, welcomes you.
Message from Ms. Mokaddem from African
Development Bank
How has tourism transformed your life
One of the most attractive benefits of tourism is its ability to foster a sense of cultural exchange between foreigners and citizens. Tourism plays a magnificent role in show-casing the country’s culture, heritage and pride of the people.
Tourism not only enables us to expand our horizons, appreciate mother nature and connect with people from ‘all walks of life’… It also enhances the socio-economic growth and job creation, income generation and the development of countries’ infrastructure. I am very grateful that through the African development Bank support, we were able to support Tourism development.
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Finish the sentence of why tourism matters:
Tourism matters because it plays an important role in people’s general well-being, attitude toward life, sense of control, and outlook. It is a key pillar of national development contributing to local economic development and growth, employment, investment as well as technology dissemination. Besides travel, tourism is also closely linked with sectors such as health, education, climate and environment.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disparate impact on SME-dominant sectors, specifically in tourism, industries, trade, and services. The African Development Bank has provided a USD 10 billion Covid Response Facility to the Continent. It has also provided support to the tourism sector in various countries. And we will continue to support the sustainable recovery of tourism, promoting private sector participation combined with the digital transition, moving to a greener tourism system, and rethinking tourism for the future.
