The role of tourism in fostering international peace
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00:00Friday is World Tourism Day, a United Nations Day of Observance that aims to underscore
00:05the importance of tourism on a global scale.
00:08This year, the event is being hosted by Georgia, and we can go now to Tbilisi, where Natalia
00:13Bayona, Executive Director of the World Tourism Organization, is standing by.
00:18Natalia, the theme of World Tourism Day this year is tourism as an instrument for peace.
00:25At a time where we have high-profile wars raging in different parts of the world, how
00:29important is the role of tourism?
00:32Good morning to everyone, and of course, happy World Tourism Day.
00:36I have to say that in the UN, we have more than 65 conflicts today that are opened.
00:45So in times of geopolitical tension today, more than ever, we need an economic sector
00:50that understands about culture, about openness, about human beings, because at the end of
00:57the day, tourism is the most human economic sector.
01:00Today, we are celebrating World Tourism Day with ministers from all around the world,
01:06and of course, starting from one of the ministers that has been a reporter of war in the past,
01:14from Guatemala, to high-level political discussions, to, of course, launching investments in tourism
01:21and promoting how this sector can help this mutual understanding that we need more than
01:27ever all around the globe.
01:30And the idea that facilitating encounters between different peoples through tourism,
01:35that it might prevent conflict, that seems very logical, but international tourism has
01:39been with us for a few hundred years now, and not on the same scale as today, but it
01:45has failed to prevent conflicts such as the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco-Prussian War,
01:50two world wars, and even the Yugoslavian Wars of the 1990s took place between people who
01:55used to holiday together on the Dalmatian coast.
01:58So what would you say to this?
02:01I have to say that today, more than ever, the world is more open, and tourism is the
02:07most open sector, and through cultural tourism, education tourism, at the end of the day,
02:14when you do tourism, you're educating yourself.
02:17The more you travel, the more open and the more empathy you have with the differences.
02:26I have been in more than 100 countries, and of course, to me, the world is one and humanity
02:32is one.
02:33So we have two main challenges here, or three, maybe.
02:37First of all, geopolitical tensions.
02:39Second of all, humanity, what we are going to do to preserve and to give a sustainable
02:44future to everyone, and the use of technology.
02:47The only sector in the world that has been recovered fully from COVID and that has assumed
02:54this human part is tourism.
02:58So today, more than ever, we need to push and to make this understanding that tourism
03:02is not only about sun and beach, as we see on TV.
03:07Tourism is about economic growth.
03:10Tourism is about education.
03:12Tourism is about investments.
03:14And the more we connect the world through this human economic sector, the more differences
03:19we can face, the more challenges that maybe we can solve.
03:23The World Tourism Organization's website says countries with a more open and sustainable
03:28tourism sector tend to be more peaceful.
03:31But many of these countries are richer in the developed world.
03:35What more is being done to help poorer countries in, say, what we call the global south, help
03:40develop successful tourism industries?
03:44I have to say that if we see the world, of course, it's absolutely right that today,
03:49more than ever, the top countries in the world when it comes to tourism in the order are
03:54France, Spain, U.S., China.
03:58But at the end of the day, if you localize the small islands, for example, more than
04:0450 percent of the GDP of the small island states are accounted, thanks to tourism.
04:13So cruises, air transportation, at the end of the day, tourism evolves and tourism helps
04:21more than 100 subsectors of the economy.
04:24So today in U.N. tourism, we are working with emerging destinations, with Latin America
04:31that is growing so fast, with the Middle East that is the region that is growing the most
04:37when it comes to tourism, and with Africa to help the countries to create an investment
04:43framework, to help to bring private equity, private investments in order to create development,
04:52to serve and to bring added value jobs, to bring new technologies through tourism, so
04:57that as you say, more than ever, we create sustainable development through tourism in
05:04a very organized way, and of course, taking into account the three sustainabilities, environmental,
05:10social, and of course, economic sustainability.
05:15The World Tourism Organization says that tourism aids post-conflict recovery.
05:20Can you give us any particular examples of that?
05:24My home country, Colombia, that's the best example I can say, because I lived in a country
05:29where in the past conflict was there.
05:33And today, more than ever, Colombia is booming after the peace process was signed, and after
05:39a state policy strategy of 16 years working in tourism, today tourism is the most important
05:47non-traditional sector, and something that I love is the power that tourism has in communities.
05:54After post-conflict, women from all around the country have been creating their own SMEs
06:03through designs, crafts, education, and today, thanks to the power of tourism, the services
06:10sector is exporting more than ever in Colombia.
06:14Colombia is the second country that grows the most in Latin America, the second country
06:18that receives more foreign direct investment in Latin America when it comes to tourism,
06:23so this is a purely example of how through a post-conflict process, resilience, facilities
06:32in the service sector, and of course in tourism, has made possible that Colombia booms again
06:38through the formal economy and through tourism, giving opportunities to all.
06:44Thank you very much for that, Natalia Bayona, who is the Executive Director of the World
06:49Tourism Organization.