World celebrates Tourism Day ‘06

WORLD TOURISM DAY is to be commemorated on September 27 each year by appropriate events on themes selected by the General Assembly, on recommendation of UNWTO’s Executive Council.

This date was chosen to coincide with an important milestone in world tourism: the anniversary of the adoption of the UNWTO Statutes on September 27, 1970.

The main purpose of World Tourism Day is to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic values.

The timing of World Tourism Day is indeed particularly appropriate in that it comes at the end of the high season in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of the season in the southern hemisphere, when tourism is of topical interest to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide from all walks of life and to tourists and the operational sector in particular.

The Organization invites all interested parties to take part on 27 September each year in the special celebrations taking place in their respective country or holiday destination.

The UNWTO Secretary-General issues a message each year to mark the occasion.

The World Tourism Day was established at the Third Session of the WTO General Assembly in Torremolinos, Spain, in September of 1979.

The purpose of this day is to display awareness that tourism is vital to the international community and to show how it affects the social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide.

Each year, there is a new theme, and a host country as the WTO’s partner for celebrating World Tourism Day, which is selected by the WTO General Assembly. September 27 is important since on that day in 1970, the Statutes of the WTO were adopted.

The adoption of the statutes is considered to be a milestone in global tourism.

By resolution 376 (XII) adopted at its Twelfth Session (Istanbul, Turkey October 1997) and on the recommendation of the Executive Council, the UNWTO General Assembly decided to designate a host country each year as the Organization’s partner for celebrating World Tourism Day—1999, Chile; 2000, Germany; 2001, Islamic Republic of Iran; 2002, Costa Rica; 2003, Algeria; 2004, Malaysia; 2005, Qatar; 2006, Portugal; 2007, Sri Lanka

During the Fourteenth Session of the UNWTO General Assembly (Seoul, Republic of Korea/ Osaka, Japan, September 2001), the Assembly, having decided to select the host country for World Tourism Day on a geographical rota basis after 2003, has decided that in the future, the corresponding Regional Commission will designate the host country.