Tourism: A Promising Industry

Published on 9th March 2014

The new year greeted us with very encouraging news.  Despite  the  lingering  challenges  of  the  world  economy and geopolitical  complications and  beyond our initial  expectations,  in 2013,  international  tourism  grew  by  a  staggering 5%, with 52 additional  million,  reaching  1,087  million international  tourists traveling the world in one single year.   

And the sector is expected to continue striving - UNWTO forecasts international tourism to grow by 4% to 4.5% in 2014 and to continue expanding up to 1.8 billion international tourists in 2030.  Indeed, tourism has become one of the  fastest  growing  economic sectors; a sector that drives global growth and development, creates millions  of  jobs,  spurs exports  and investment  and  transforms peoples’ lives.  

Yet, to ensure our sector remains competitive, we must address a few challenges and as in every year at ITB, we take stock and look into the future in an attempt to set the agenda for the sector. Mindful  that many issues  such  as  financing,  infrastructure development or human  capital which  remain central  to the  future of  the sector,  allow  me  to  briefly focus  on  five  key challenges,  which we have  set  as  a  priorities  at  UNWTO, committed to transform these into five major opportunities. 

1. Travel facilitation - In spite  of  the significant progress  made  in recent  years,  destinations  around  the  world  still  require  about two-thirds of the world´s population (66%) to obtain a visa before departure.  We  must  therefore  improve  visa  policies  and  processing, particularly if  destinations  want  to  attract  the  growing  source markets of China, Russia or India. It  is  rewarding  thus  to  see  recent  moves  in  the  right  direction coming out of the Schengen zone, the USA or the UAE.    

2. Connectivity – The advances of air transport in recent decades have greatly contributed to tourism´s extraordinary growth.  Yet, in spite of the clear linkages between aviation and tourism, and the fact that over 50% of the world’s international tourists reach their destination by air, many countries still have disjointed policies between the two sectors and restrictive skies. UNWTO has made it a priority to bridge air transport and tourism policies; we must therefore improve policy alignment and further liberalization as these will lead to the growth of both sectors.  

3. Taxation - When the imposition of unbalanced taxes, levies, visa fees or airport fees becomes arbitrary, we are in fact “killing the goose that lays the golden egg.” While properly constituted taxes  are  a  fundamental  and  legitimate fiscal  tool,  and the sector  should  naturally  contribute  its  due, an unbalanced  taxation policy on  tourism can  actually  produce  a  net damage to the economy. 

Having visited Australia two weeks ago, it was very encouraging to see the Government’s freezing the Passenger Movement Charge as a means to contribute to Australia’s Tourism 2020 targets. We need to see more of this. We need to revisit out tax regimes and measure their effects, not only on the tourism sector, but on the economy all-together.  

4.Cross-cutting  government  policies  and  public-private partnerships  -There  can  be  no  tourism  development without public/public partnerships; without national, cross-cutting policies and  inter-governmental  coordination.  Tourism needs to be a national policy and not a sectoral policy. By the same token, there can be no tourism development without public/private partnerships.    This is an expression we have become accustomed to use but the truth is, we are still far from a real engagement of public and private sectors in tourism development. The world has changed, the sector has transformed. We have before us an opportunity to create new and innovative models of cooperation which not only embrace the tourism public sector and private sectors, but also the civil society and other players coming from areas such as technology, arts, gastronomy or culture. We  must  therefore  realize  that  tourism  is  no  longer  about  a product;  it’s  about  interconnected  experiences  that  need  all players for it to be complete.  

5. Last, but without doubt not least, sustainability. With growth comes responsibility. One billion international tourists travelling the world can mean one billion opportunities or one billion disasters.  With  the  economic  growth,  job  creation  and  development opportunities  that  tourism  brings,  comes great  responsibility  and the  over-arching challenge  of  sustainability: it  is  up  to  us  to shoulder this responsibility by placing sustainability and ethics at the core of tourism development.   

Together with our sister UN agencies – UNESCO and UNODC –  and  leading  partners  in  the  private  sector  (Marriott  and Sabre)  we  are calling  on  tourists to  make the  right  ethical choice  as  consumers  and  thus  contribute  to  preserve  the natural  and  cultural  assets  that form  an  invaluable  part  of  the world´s heritage. We  need  to  protect  our  planet,  our  people  while  we  make profit. 

We are stepping up the efforts to support the fight against poaching in Africa.  This  illegal  killing  of  wildlife  in  the  continent  is reaching alarming  levels,  threatening  not  only  Africa´s  entire ecosystems, but  also  risking  depriving  thousands  of  local communities  of  their  livelihoods  as  Africa’s  main  tourism capital is in danger. 

Let  us  take  the  good  news  of  tourism´s  growth  a  step  further  by answering its higher call. For growth and responsibility are not a zero sum game. Our  collective,  responsible actions will ensure  that  tourism  remains an  effective  agent  of  change, shaping  a better  future and  a  better world for all of us. 

By Taleb Rifai,
UNWTO Secretary-General


This article has been read 1,965 times
COMMENTS