According to António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, Tourism brings people together. However, this may be wishful thinking regarding hot spots destroying this disturbed, beautiful blue planet.
Guterres said: On this World Tourism Day, we reflect on the profound connection between tourism and peace. Sustainable tourism can transform communities – creating jobs, fostering inclusion, and strengthening local economies.
Valuing and preserving cultural and natural heritage can help reduce tensions and nurture peaceful coexistence. Tourism can also promote economic interdependence between neighbors, encouraging cooperation and peaceful development.
At the same time, tourism broadens horizons. Every traveler can be an ambassador, engaging respectfully with local populations, recognizing our diversity and shared humanity, and the values that unite us all. As we celebrate tourism, let us travel responsibly, build bridges, and promote mutual respect among cultures and nations.
Together, we can harness the power of tourism to advance peace and prosperity for all. Tourism, often highlighted for its role in economic development, also plays a significant role in fostering peace. On a global level, where nations are interconnected and interdependent, Tourism, an industry made by people and for people, emerges as a compelling and dynamic force to defy stereotypes and challenge prejudices.
This sector can be perceived as the epitome of intercultural dialogue; it allows meeting the “other”, learning about different cultures, hearing foreign languages, tasting exotic flavours, bonding with other human beings, and building tolerance. In essence, it is a mind-broadening educational and spiritual experience.
World Tourism Day 2024, under the theme “Tourism and Peace“, wants to highlight the vital role of this sector in fostering peace and understanding between nations and cultures and in supporting reconciliation processes.
Tourism and Wars
It’s officially celebrated this year in Georgia. Still, inofficially, hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine, Russia, Palestine, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Myanmar, DR Congo, Sudan, and Israel are hoping and praying that tourism and peace become a reality.
The World Tourism Day celebrations in Georgia will feature keynote speeches, ministerial dialogues, and high-level discussions on tourism’s role in promoting peace, economic stability, and sustainable development. Tbilisi, known for its multicultural heritage and historical significance, provides an ideal backdrop for these discussions, which will engage key global stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.
Peace Through Tourism Leaders not Invited to World Tourism Day
The pioneers who devoted a good part of their lives to trying to bring the hotspots in the world together through tourism are Mr. Louis D’Amore, the founder and former president of the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism (IIPT), and Dr. Taleb Rifai, the former two-term secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, formerly known as UNWTO. They are not invited.
It can only be hoped after this article is published and also circulated to Anita Mendiratta, this top advisor to both rival secretary generals but who is also on the advisory board of IIPT founder Louis D’Amore will do the right thing in Georgia.
Both WTN tourism heroes and IIPT, an organization devoted to Peace Through tourism, are missing in Georgia, overlooked, and uninvited. This is where politics and reality become obvious again.
When he took office in 2018, the current UN Tourism Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili, ordered UNWTO to withdraw all support from the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism. This resulted in IIPT having to cancel their Montreal summit, an unsustainable loss of personal and IIPT funds and reputation, and a humanization for IIPT founder Louis D’Amore and Dr. Taleb Rifai.
IIPT is overlooked and ignored this year by UN-Tourism, the same organization now celebrating tourism and peace in Georgia’s beautiful and “delicious” country.
The global travel and tourism leadership still refrains from commenting on geopolitical developments and human rights abuses. This has become even more obvious since the Georgian Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili took leadership in 2018.
Forgotten are the times when the UNWTO and WTTC leaders met with heads of state together and played a direct role in many issues affecting tourism and other industries.
Tourism is a business. Entire economies rely on it. Geopolitics, conflicts, and natural disasters have a direct influence on world security and, of course, tourism. Tourism leaders should not be shy about speaking about peace and tourism and contribute to solutions, condemnation, and criticism.
Having World Tourism Day in Georgia is bittersweet for the world since journalists are not allowed to ask critical questions. The event is poised to be celebrated with optimistic speeches and great food to celebrate a perfect world and open the doors for the UN Tourism Secretary-General to run for an unheard-of third term.
eTurboNews was told that support for him in Georgis has diminished after one scandal after another involving his possible implementation in a criminal conspiracy in Spain, resulting in his support in Europe being seriously questioned.
A source close to eTN said, “Zurab is hoping his bringing WTD2024 to Georgia will change this.”
However, tourism and peace have never been more critical in the world.
The new IIPT Chairman Ajay Prakash told eTurboNews:
We’re doing an event in Mumbai with the Royal Thai Consulate to mark the UN Day of Peace. For World Tourism Day, we’ve put up video messages on the IIPT website, and all Chapters have been asked to do events locally.
We have no contact with UN Tourism.
IIPT Jamaica Chapter president Diane McIntyre Pike told eTurboNews
“Sadly, our tourism minister Bartlett and his team did not directly connect with us as we also have events this week, but I am happy to see that he is recognizing the importance of peace through tourism and is traveling to Georgia.”
“IIPT has declared Jamaica as the HOME OF COMMUNITY TOURISM and agreed with our recommendation to include the Caribbean since we have been training there over the years.”
