‘Rethinking Tourism’ is the theme for this year’s World
Tourism Day 2022, celebrated on 27 September with UNWTO designating Indonesia
as the host country for the official celebrations.
UNWTO member states, non-members and stakeholders from the
private sector are invited to host their celebrations and promote the day by
focusing on the central theme of re-imagining the sector’s growth, both in size
and relevance.
No one doubts the need to conduct a massive rethink of the
tourism industry to meet sustainability and climate change challenges. But it’s
a genuine year-long commitment that needs to be embraced across all tourism
sectors rather than paying lip service on a particular day.
UNWTO should rethink the globetrotting its officials engage
in to attend meetings. Travel executives should review the enormous carbon
footprints they create in the name of business networking. Covid-19 taught us
that most trade events we attend could function online using apps such as Zoom.
Lessons learned are quickly forgotten as the need to gather for networking and
a natter reassert themselves. Airlines need to speed up the adoption of
sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). The present target aims to achieve net carbon
emissions by 2050.
“The potential of tourism is enormous, and we have a shared
responsibility to make sure it is fully realised, said UNWTO secretary-general Zurab
Pololikashvili in a media statement announcing World Tourism Day: “UNWTO calls
on everyone from tourism workers to tourists themselves, as well as small
businesses, large corporations and governments to reflect and rethink what we
do and how we do it.”
World Tourism Day has been held on 27 September each year
since 1980. The date marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Statutes of
the Organisation in 1970, paving the way for the establishment of UNWTO five
years later.