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Tourist Industry generates millions of jobs amid crisis
UN World Tourism Day is celebrated annually on Sept
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N World Tourism Day is celebrated annually on Sept. 27 across the globe. Themed “Linking Culture”, this year’s WTD is aimed at fostering awareness among international communities of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value. The theme provides an opportunity to highlight tourism’s role in bringing the cultures of the world together and promoting global understanding through travel. The Jakarta Post is running a special report on WTD to participate in the celebration of this special event. Aside from an overview of WTD, messages and tourism spots, readers can also find WTD-related events in different countries and culturally typical aspects from different countries.
Many of us do not know that today, Sept. 27, is World Tourism Day (WTD).The main theme of this year’s WTD is “Tourism – Linking Cultures”. One may immediately ask why we should celebrate WTD? What is the relationship between tourism and culture?
Although tourism is one of the world’s largest industries, employing more than 100 millionpeople, it didn’t find prominence in the media due to a lack of awareness about the importance and benefits of the tourist industry.
In recent years, especially in the 21st century, the face of the global tourist industry has changed dramatically. Technological advancements in the aviation industry, new innovative ideas on cost-cutting measures and efficiency in the tourist industry have made air travel affordable for everybody.
“Believe it or not, sometimes, traveling from Jakarta to Singapore by air (using a budget airline) is much cheaper than traveling from Changi Airport to a hotel in downtown Singapore by taxi,” Sutiyono, a Jakarta-based business executive told The Jakarta Post of his recent experience.
As a result, hundreds of millions of people -- rich or poor, with frills or no frills -- across the globe have been traveling each year and interacting with different people and their diverse cultures.
“There is no better way to learn about a new culture than to experience it first-hand. Tourism offers a wonderful connecting thread between visitor and host community,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his 2011 World Tourism Day message.
“ It (tourism) promotes dialogue and interaction. Such contact between people of different backgrounds is the very foundation for tolerance. In a world struggling for peaceful coexistence, tourism can build bridges and contribute to peace.”
Of late, global tourism has shown its distinct features and resilience to economic and upheavals.
Political tsunamis in the Middle East and North Africa, a real tsunami in Japan, storms, quakes, famine, forest fires and floods , economic hardships in Europe and the US, terror attacks and pesky security checks of bags and bodies at airports notwithstanding, global tourism grew by almost 5 percent in the first six months of 2011. That’s amazing.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), between January to June 2011, the total number of international arrivals across the globe reached 440 million, a 4.5 percent increase from the 421 million during the same period in 2010.
In the whole year of 2010, international tourist arrivals hit 940 million from a global population of around 7 billion people and contributed a record $919 billion in revenue for the local economies. More than 3 billion people, or nearly half of the global population, travel to domestic destinations using all means of transportation: cars, buses, boats, ships, trains, horses, camels, bicycles, motorcycles, etc.
Not only that, the tourist industry is one of the biggest creators of new jobs, both directly and indirectly. In many countries, tourism is the backbone of their economies. It is close related to the industries of aviation, transportation, hotels and restaurants, hospitality and so many others.
“Tourism is an engine of economic growth and one of the most effective creators of new jobs,” said Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor while opening the first UNWTO International Conference on Tourism and the Media in Zagreb on Sept. 12, 2011.
According to the UNWTO, France is world’s top tourist destination with 76.8 million foreign tourist arrivals. The US is in second position with 59.7 million arrivals in 2010, and China came in third with 55.7 million tourists.
