United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has declared the 27th of September as the World Tourism Day in order to foster awareness among the international community about the significant importance of tourism. Tourism day 2022 will be celebrated in Bali, Indonesia under the theme of “Rethinking tourism”. It regards tourism as a vehicle for recovery and transformation, which will help in filling the gaps formed in the economy due to the covid pandemic. UNWTO expects to readjust tourism in the future as sustainable tourism that is accessible to everyone. At the World Tourism Day 2022, UNWTO is also planning to highlight the potential of the tourism sector in achieving sustainable development goals under the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Why should we celebrate tourism?
Tourism is indeed one of the fastest growing economic sectors as shown by the following statistics. Sri Lanka has grown up to 480,000 tourists by the first 8 months of 2022 which has achieved a global revenue of 824.9 million dollars for first seven months with 458,670 arrivals, according to the data published by the Central Bank. Therefore, sustainable tourism in a country is one of the key factors to achieve sustainable development. As same as in the economy, tourism has a significant role in culture and society as it is also evident that tourism contributes to international cooperation of human rights in securing freedom for everyone and in other numerous ways. It simply breaks the barriers between people all over the world. Because one who travels the world gains a sound knowledge of different cultures and people, which ultimately help them to embrace the diversity and to respect it while promoting and sharing one’s own culture. Tourism makes people environmentalists and more of world citizens as it gives an urge to protect nature and to preserve our heritage.
What can we do to celebrate world tourism day?
Do not worry if you cannot go on a long trip with your loved ones, you still have plenty of other things to do in order to celebrate world tourism day. Treat your ordinary day like a vacation and travel to places within your hometown which will benefit most of the local businesses. Share a video on social media to promote your hometown or share one of your previous travel videos which can promote the attractive places of the country. Another special thing you can try out is helping someone who likes to travel but has not got the chance due to financial difficulties.
Wishing all citizens of the earth a happy tourism day!
