This year’s World Tourism Day (WTD) theme focuses on
tourism’s significant role and contribution to worldwide water conservation
efforts.
The theme is in line with the UN General Assembly’s
declaration of 2013 as the United Nations International Year of Water
Cooperation, providing the opportunity to further highlight the shared
responsibility of the tourism sector to the wider sustainability objectives.
Centered on the theme ‘Tourism and Water: Protecting
our Common Future’, World Tourism Day 2013 will underline tourism´s
responsibility and needed commitment to preserving the world´s vital water
resources. The Maldives will host the official celebrations on 27 September
2013.
As a trillion dollar economic sector, tourism is a
powerful force capable of tackling this challenge by offering effective
solutions geared towards a more sustainable water future. With over one billion
people traveling internationally each year, tourism can also be an important
vehicle of raising awareness and changing behaviors.
“As one of the largest economic sectors in the
world, it is the responsibility of the tourism sector to take a leadership role
and ensure companies and destinations invest in adequate water management
throughout the value chain.
“If managed sustainably, tourism can bring benefits
to the national and local communities and support water preservation,” said
UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai in his official WTD 2013 message. “I urge
all those involved in the tourism sector to join our global World Tourism Day
campaign and continue to devise innovate solutions to ensuring sustainable
access to water resources worldwide.”
Clean, accessible water is vital to tourism, running
most of the sector´s businesses, from hotels and restaurants to leisure
facilities and transportation.
More importantly, wetland tourism is growing, with
many of the world’s coastlines, lakes and other wetlands among the most popular
tourism destinations.
World Tourism Day will be a unique opportunity to
examine the challenges facing water management in tourism and the measures
being undertaken by the sector to protect and promote water resources while
creating benefits for local populations around water tourism destinations.
Official WTD celebrations in the Maldives will
include a High-Level Think Tank bringing together public and private tourism
stakeholders and water experts to devise policies and strategies aimed at
ensuring the tourism sector contributes to protecting water resources.
Ends.
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