World Tourism Day is a United Nations event and it is observed annually on the 27th of September worldwide this year it is gonna be hosted in Bali, Indonesia. 

Tourism is today one of the largest industries in the world and it also plays a key role in the economy, we observe it annually on the 27th of September

This day aims to bring awareness and encourage people toward tourism. As it thinks tourism is a way by which people from over the world get even closer and connected. 

Ever since the end of the second world war, we have seen a gradual shift in our world as it is today so much more interconnected than ever it was before. Hence tourism today plays a major role in the world’s economy in fact in some countries or regions their major source of revenue comes from tourism only. 

World Tourism Day History: 

On large scale tourism actually became a thing after the world wars only when the United Nations was established to create an inter-connected world with a concept of globalization and we can say that it had worked pretty well as today it is very easy for people to travel to different countries and places of the world and tourism happen on a large scale.  

It is not that before globalization tourism didn’t exist as sailing abroad on ships became a thing much earlier over 500 years but it was mostly about trade or settlement purposes only and much less focus was on tourism. It was not until commercial airplanes were introduced that tourism became a very common thing. Although today also we might get some issue regarding visa policies or safety threat that affects tourism most of the world is very open to travel and tourism. 

World Tourism Day for the first time was established on 27th September 1980 and since then it has been celebrated annually. This date was chosen as on that day in 1970, the Statutes of the UNWTO were adopted. The adoption of these Statutes is considered a milestone in global tourism. It was huge as it was the first time when a global community came together to make a mechanism for tourism easy as they all realized the potential that travel and tourism hold. 

This paved the way for the formation of the United Nations World Tourism Organization(UNWTO) five years later in 1975. This body was created to look at and manage all of the affairs related to the functioning of tourism and travel around the world. The main aim of this body was to make travel and tourism easy for all the people to travel freely anywhere around the world. 

At its Twelfth Session in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 1997, the UNWTO General Assembly decided to designate a host country each year to act as the Organization’s partner in the celebration of World Tourism Day. At its Fifteenth Session in Beijing, China, in October 2003, the Assembly decided on the following geographic order to be followed for World Tourism Day celebrations: 2006 in Europe, 2007 in South Asia, 2008 in the Americas, 2009 in Africa, and 2011 in the Middle East so that every part of the world can be included. 

World Tourism Day Significance: 

The purpose of this day is to raise awareness of the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political, and economic values worldwide.

First, let us talk about its social and cultural aspects throughout history it is seen that often the world has engulfed itself in major conflicts because of various misunderstandings which existed between many nations or empires. So tourism is a great way to connect people throughout the world. As this gives a chance to people to explore the world and see everything with open eyes and instead of hating they learn to embrace each other through tourism. 

Tourism is a very large industry and it is a major source of income for some tiny or island countries as they can’t focus on large industries like manufacturing or industrial due to their small size so tourism provides a lifeline to these countries. Large countries too focus largely on tourism as it provides a great source of revenue for the state and provides employment to millions of people worldwide. 

That’s why when the Covid-19 pandemic hit we saw that countries that were heavily reliant on tourism took the most hit and were hugely affected by the loss of revenue and employment issues. But thankfully the situation is getting better very much now as the pandemic is fading from time now and we just hope that it ends soon so that the world can take a huge sigh of relief as it had not only affected but many large industries also. 

After the pandemic, it is also seen that people are more excited about travel now so it is a perfect moment to celebrate this World Tourism Day! The goal of the day is also to promote tourism across the world as it helps in both ways culturally and economically to the world. It is easy to promote tourism today as many people like traveling and exploring new things. 

The Riviera Maya Times
Newsroom

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