September 27 2007 World Tourism Day

World Tourism Day September 27 2007

September 27 is celebrated all over the world as World Tourism Day to display awareness that tourism is vital to the international community and to show how it affects the social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide. This practice started in 1980. This date was chosen to coincide with an important milestone in world tourism: the anniversary of the adoption of the WTO Statutes on 27 September 1970 at the Third Session of the UNWTO General Assembly in Torremolinos, Spain, in September of 1979..

September 27 is all the more appealing as World Tourism Day in that it comes at the end of the high season in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of the season in the southern hemisphere, A point of time when tourism is in everyone’s mind and hundreds of thousands of people make their travel plans thus creating an electric atmosphere in the entire tourism industry. The industry responds by hiked expenditure in advertisements and thus filling all sorts of media that appeal to the traveler from blogs to televisions.

At its Twelfth Session in Istanbul, Turkey, in October of 1997, the UNWTO General Assembly decided to designate a host country each year as the Organization's partner for celebrating World Tourism Day.

At its Fifteenth Session in Beijing, China, in October of 2003, the Assembly decided the following geographic order to be followed for the World Tourism Day celebrations: 2006 in Europe; 2007 in South Asia; 2008 in the Americas, and 2009 in Africa.

WTO's Executive Council introduced another interesting aspect of World Tourism Day celebrations. It is that the event is to be commemorated on 27 September each year by appropriate events on themes selected by the General Assembly.

WTO invites all interested parties to take part on 27 September each year in the special celebrations taking place in their respective country or holiday destination. And there will be a message issued every year by the WTO general secretary.

Themes of World Tourism Day over the years:

* 1980: Tourism's contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage and to peace and mutual understanding
* 1981: Tourism and the quality of life
* 1982: Pride in travel: good guests and good hosts
* 1983: Travel and holidays are a right but also a responsibility for all
* 1984: Tourism for international understanding, peace and cooperation
* 1985: Youth Tourism: cultural and historical heritage for peace and friendship
* 1986: Tourism: a vital force for world peace
* 1987: Tourism for development
* 1988: Tourism: education for all
* 1989: The free movement of tourists creates one world
* 1990: Tourism: an unrecognized industry, a service to be released ("The Hague Declaration on Tourism")
* 1991: Communication, information and education: powerlines of tourism development
* 1992: Tourism: a factor of growing social and economic solidarity and of encounter between people
* 1993: Tourism development and environmental protection: towards a lasting harmony
* 1994: Quality staff, quality tourism
* 1995: WTO: serving world tourism for twenty years
* 1996: Tourism: a factor of tolerance and peace
* 1997: Tourism: a leading activity of the twenty-first century for job creation and environmental protection
* 1998: Public-private sector partnership: the key to tourism development and promotion
* 1999: Tourism: preserving world heritage for the new millennium (Host: Chile)
* 2000: Technology and nature: two challenges for tourism at the dawn of the twenty-first century (Host: Germany)
* 2001: Tourism: a toll for peace and dialogue among civilizations (Host: Iran)
* 2002: Ecotourism, the key to sustainable development (Host: Costa Rica)
* 2003: Tourism: a driving force for poverty alleviation, job creation and social harmony (Host: Algeria)
* 2004: Sport and tourism: two living forces for mutual understanding, culture and the development of societies (Host: Malaysia)
* 2005: Travel and transport: from the imaginary of Jules Verne to the reality of the 21st century (Host: Qatar)
* 2006: Tourism Enriches (Host: Portugal)
* 2007: Tourism opens doors for women (Host: Sri Lanka)

World Tourism Day September 27 2007

Women is the center of focus of the World Tourism Day in septer 27 2007. The day is being marked as an occasion to celebrate women’s achievements in the field of tourism and for Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.

The theme is designed to address the important role tourism can play in creating opportunities for employment that will help eliminate poverty in developing countries around the world.

WTO’s goal is to build on knowledge sharing and capacity building to ensure the tourism sector promotes gender equality and women empowerment through to 2015.

For more information, you may visit the World Tourism Organization's site at

http://www.unwto.org/wtd/index.php

UNWTO Together with the Sustainable Tourism Research Centre in Australia, is launching new website www.tourismgender.com on September 27. the focus of the site will be on the role of gender in tourism and how to enhance it, addressing women as agents of change in and for sustainable tourism.