World Tourism Day: Fostering cohesion for the community

The World Tourism Day takes place every year on the 27^th of September. This year the UN is emphasizing on the initiation of directing the attention towards achieving one major goal and on tourism’s impact on an important element of the society: Community Development. This is in line of being one of the constituent of the Sustainable Development Goals campaign initiated by the United Nations for 2015 and beyond.

The significance of tourism in the international economic scale cannot be neglected. Tourism, as a separate identity, has contributed 9 per cent to the global GDP, brought jobs to 11% of the world’s working population and as acted as highly significant revenue contributor for the individual GDP’s of countries. This influence of the tourism industry on the global economy has brought onto it an essence of social responsibility and political applicability. A greater amount of importance is given to tourism during policymaking as governments look to shape their countries in attractive ways and encourage tourists to visit their lands so as to generate more revenue.

This year the focus is on community development. It involves focusing on tourism from the grass root level. The local community will take place in the decision making and planning processes so the demands of tourists and the locals can be catered for alike. International promotion on tourism not only focuses on community development, it also protects older cultures and heritage from going extinct.

After a regular industry becomes established which streams in tourists to view particular landmarks, individuals get to realize the value of their culture, and thus step ahead to represent and retain it with pride. International involvement also stimulates local as well as federal governments of underdeveloped countries to look for options for support and investment from overseas, thus adding in diversity among options for global tourism.

In honour of the celebrations of World Tourism Day, the UN is officially hosting a summit conference involving a think tank of experts, intellectuals, officials and stakeholders of tourism industries across the globe in Guadalajara, Mexico. Social media coverage via Facebook and Twitter will be made through official profiles of the UN. Celebrations involving official programs will follow on the chosen theme for this year’s World Tourism Day.