Human beings have always liked to enjoy nature and its beauty. They have shown their interest in their surroundings and have always strived to discover natural phenomena. The scenic environment has always attracted them and made them show their love for it in different ways. They have written essays, stories and poems and songs in this regard. They have not stayed to their own surroundings and tried to go to different parts of the world and enjoy the beauties of nature. Though, they have faced difficulties and hardships, they have not given up their thirst for finding out the miracles of this bewitching world and have kept on being astonished by it.
Today, when the world has been modernized and divided in different states, boundaries and borders have been created, yet human beings have not given up touring different places in different countries. This has now taken a formal form and called as tourism. Tourism is now a famous leisure and a developing business as well. Millions of people around the world tour various places and thus spend a large amount of money every year; while the countries that host those tourists earn millions of dollars as well. A part from financial and economic benefits, tourism can also provide opportunities to share social and cultural values and at the same time assist people in learning traditional and historical lessons.
According to World Tourism Rankings compiled by United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in 2013, around 1.087 billion international tourists travelled to different parts of the world and it also showed that there was an increase of around 5% as compared to 1.03 billion in 2012. This clearly depicts that a large number of people each year opt for tourism and they do not even hesitate to spend money in this regard.
The top ten countries in the ranking in 2013 were; 1. France with 84.7 million international tourist arrivals; 2. United States with 69.8 million international tourist arrivals; 3. Spain with 60.7 million international tourist arrivals; 4. China that hosted 55.7 million international tourists; 5. Italy, which hosted 47.7 million international tourists; 6. Turkey that experienced arrival of 37.8 million international tourists; 7. Germany with 31.5 million international tourists; 8. United Kingdom that had 31.2 million international tourists; 9. Russia with 28.4 million international tourists; and 10. Thailand with 26.5 million international tourists.
The list clearly shows that the countries that are well-developed host more number of tourists every year and resultantly they are able to earn more money in this regard. According to UNWTO’s world tourism rankings, the total money earned through tourism reached to USD 1.07 trillion in 2013. And the three countries that earned most of the money included; United States – USD 139.6 billion, Spain – USD 60.4 billion and France – USD 56.1 billion.
The statistics mentioned above point at the reality that economic stability has an important role in the development and improvement of tourism. It, in fact, helps both in providing better opportunities to host tourists and at the same time provide better opportunities to produce tourists who would have the capacity to tour the places of their choice. It is really difficult to find any country suffering from economic instability spending money for the promotion and development of tourism as they have many other priorities. There are several countries in the world that have places worth visiting and can attract many tourists, but as the governments of such countries are not able to spare budget for development of tourism, they are not able to cash the opportunity.
In a similar fashion, the political stability and security also play a dominant role in supporting tourism. The countries that suffer from insecurity are not able to attract tourists as tourists would rarely want to risk their lives for the sake of tourism. Afghanistan is also a similar type of country that has been suffering from the evil of insecurity; therefore, tourism has not been able to flourish much.
United Nations has been striving to promulgate more awareness about tourism and its advantages and highlight its impacts on social, cultural, political and economic values throughout the world. In this regard, September 27 each year is celebrated as World Tourism Day internationally. The day was chosen in 1970 and at the same time the Statutes of the UNWTO were adopted, which are considered to be important milestone in global tourism. If celebrated properly and followed practically the day can prove to be very much supportive for the countries that are in the process of developing tourism.
In October 1997, during the 12th Session of World Tourism Day in Istanbul, Turkey, the General Assembly of UNWTO decided to designate a host country each year to act as the Organization’s partner in celebrating the day. At the same time, it was decided that every year a theme would be chosen for the day so as to highlight the issues regarding tourism and promote it as much as possible.
This year, 2014, the country to host World Tourism Day is Mexico. And the day is being celebrated in Guadalajara under the theme Tourism and Community Development. The main focus of the day is ability of the tourism to empower people and provide them with skills to achieve change in their local communities.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s message on the Day sufficiently summarizes the importance of the day and the responsibility of the world community, “This year´s observance of World Tourism Day focuses on the ability of tourism to fully empower people. Engaging local populations in tourism development builds stronger and more resilient communities. Tourism helps people to develop a variety of skills. As a service sector with cross-cutting impact on agriculture, construction or handicrafts, tourism creates millions of jobs and business opportunities. Its capacity to lift people from poverty, promote gender empowerment and help protect the environment has made it a vital tool for achieving positive change in communities across the world. Harnessing tourism´s benefits will be critical to achieving the sustainable development goals and implementing the post-2015 development agenda.
On World Tourism Day, I encourage the international tourism community to commit to sustainable policies and ensure that host communities worldwide share in the benefits generated by tourism”.