The official World Tourism Day celebration is being held in Bali Nusa Dua, Indonesia, today – 27 September, highlighting the shift toward tourism being recognized as a crucial pillar of development.
With the theme of ‘Rethinking Tourism’, the International Day of Observance will this year focus on re-imagining the sector’s growth, both in terms of size and relevance.
UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili says: “The potential of tourism is enormous, and we have a shared responsibility to make sure it is fully realized. On World Tourism Day 2022, UNWTO calls on everyone, from tourism workers to tourists themselves, as well as small businesses, large corporations and governments to reflect and rethink what we do and how we do it.”
Mr. Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Republic of Indonesia made the opening speech at the day-long events, and meetings. You can watch the whole session on the Youtube channel below.
World Tourism Day Report Launched
To mark the day, UNWTO launched its first World Tourism Day Report, the first in an annual series of updates and analysis of the Organization’s work guiding the sector forward. The inaugural report is titled “Rethinking Tourism: From Crisis to Transformation”, reflecting the timely relevance of the 2022 theme as well as the unprecedented crisis that hit the sector in 2020.
The report charts UNWTO’s work uniting the sector in the face of crisis, leading tourism’s response and laying the foundations for a more inclusive and resilient future, with updates on work in every global region as well as in key areas including gender equality, sustainability and climate action, tourism governance and investments and innovation.
The Minister of Tourism for the Republic of Indonesia, Sandiaga Uno, said: “The most important assets in tourism are its people and the planet. We must ensure the best support for both. In Bali, UNWTO commended Indonesia for going beyond words and taking concrete steps to transform tourism, notably by becoming the first country in the Asia and the Pacific region to sign up to the ambitious Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and its goals to reach Net-Zero emissions for the sector by 2050 at the latest.”
Also adding his voice to the celebrations, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said: “Tourism has the power to foster inclusion, protect nature & promote cultural understanding. We must rethink and reinvent the sector to ensure its sustainability.”
