Tourism has experienced a revolution in the past 50 years. In 1950, there were 25 million international tourists. Today,the number is in the region of 1.2 billion.

Travelling has become a huge part of many lives. According to statistics released by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), in 2015 there were 1,184 billion arrivals of international tourists in the world, and according to predictions the number will reach two billion in 2030. There is also a massive number of tourists regularly arriving locally.

Yet, considering that 15 per cent of the world’s population is estimated to live with some form of disability, there about one billion people around the world who may be unable to enjoy the privilege of knowing other cultures, experience nature at its fullest and enjoy the excitement of embarking on a journey to explore new sights.

To encourage humanity to address this situation, the WTO theme for World Tourism Day 2016, which will take place, as is custom, on September 27, is Tourism for all – promoting universal accessibility.

The theme is in itself a challenge to the world to recognise the necessity of accessibility in the world of tourism and to seek to accommodate everyone everywhere they may travel to. It is also a conscious reminder to one and all around the world to push for integration in order to improve each other’s potential in tourism and to promote a mutual understanding of different cultures and traditions.

The WTO affirms that tourism “constitutes a right equally open to all the world’s inhabitants” and “obstacles should not be placed in its way”. The organisation is maintaining that accessibility for all should therefore be at the centre of tourism policies and business strategies not only as a human right, but also as a great market opportunity.

A message issued by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples on the occasion of the World Tourism Day 2016 argues that it is possible to speak of a “right to tourism”. Indeed, it sees such a right as most definitely a concrete expression of the right “to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay”, recognised by Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948.

The Council sustains that tourism is consequently not only an opportunity, but is a right of every person and cannot be limited to certain social classes or to certain specific geographical areas.

Still, many people continue to be excluded from executing this right. This is, first of all, in many developing countries, where basic needs have not yet been guaranteed and so the right to tourism appears to be something very distant.

Actually, for such people, to speak of the subject may even seem frivolous, even if tourism can be a resource in the battle against poverty. Moreover, even in well-developed nations, one discovers significant portions of societies that do not have easy access to tourism.

The so-called ‘tourism for all’ that can be made use of by anyone at an international level could therefore be a concept which, among other things, integrates the ideas of ‘accessible tourism’, ‘sustainable tourism’ and ‘social tourism’.

The term ‘social tourism’ demands that no one be excluded on the basis of a different culture, or a lack of resources, or because they live in less-developed regions. This means that among the target groups of the interventions in this sector there should be young people, families with many children, people with disabilities and the elderly, as is stated in the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.

Tourism must extend beyond numbers and figures also because it has the magic to bring people from all over the globe, from all walks of life, to be together peacefully without discrimination. It also helps them to be in a world where people respect each other.

Malta’s planners are therefore encouraged to think positively about the concept of ‘tourism for all’ through initiatives that put tourism at the service of personal realisation and social development.

cphbuttigieg@gmail.com

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