A strategic partnership has been formed between three international tourism organisations to foster greater collaboration in sustainable development and resilience in the face of crises that impact the sector.
The alliance between the newly formed International Tourism and Investment Conference (ITIC), the Mediterranean Global Centre for Tourism and the Resilience and Crisis Management Foundation was announced at the ITIC launch event on Friday in London.
Chairman of the ITIC advisory board Dr Taleb Rifai said: “We cannot work alone, we have to work together if we want to achieve anything. We can find synergies. That’s how our industry can become something. Why is investing important in our industry? It’s because it’s investing in all our futures.
“Tourism today is not just a very powerful flourishing sector accounting for 7.2% of global GDP and one in ten jobs, it’s more than just that, it’s touching people’s lives, it’s connecting people together. One of the most important differences today in the world is the difference in understanding between people’s. Tourism is bringing people together. There’s nothing more effective than people travelling, rubbing shoulders, meeting together. If you hear their stories, taste their food, listen to their music you can never have feelings of resentment towards them.”
The ITIC launch event heard from speakers, including the president of Malta Her Excellency Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca , who called on tourism development to be inclusive of the host populations and not to create five-star compounds among people who are among the world’s poorest but to involve them in the industry, offer education and opportunities to work and establish their own businesses.
Coleiro Preca said: “The powerful potential of the tourism sector is a unique catalyst for the benefit of our entire human family. It can help to achieve inclusivity, prosperity and peace. Tourism can boost the competitiveness of national economies in a massive way and can enhance economic opportunities for the benefit of our peoples.”
She added that tourism now accounts for 11.2% of total investment in Malta, 28.3% of jobs, represents 27.1% of GDP and this is projected to rise to 33% by 2028.
“From my experience I’m even more convinced that tourism is the industry that can bring prosperity to our communities in the most direct and immediate ways. But policies in tourism must also be a response to the grass roots realities of our communities. To ensure we manage to find the right balance with increasing pressure of ‘overtourism’, sustainable tourism is the only way forward. This can be achieved by synergies.”
ITIC, which will hold its first two-day conference next November in London, is focussing it’s efforts on tourism development and investment in Africa and the world’s island nations.
The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRC) has recently opened the Tourism Resilience Centre in Kingston, Jamaica, a world first which it hopes will assist nations to prepare and recover from natural and geo-political disasters by sharing best practice, expertise and resources.
The inaugural GTRC board meeting will take place today ahead of World Travel Market in London this week. The GTRC is working to finalise the structure and formation of the centre’s board of directors.
The centre, which will be sited at the UWI Mona Campus, will be formally launched during the Caribbean Marketplace Expo in Montego Bay next January.
The temporary chairman of the board is former United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) secretary-general Dr Taleb Rifai and Jamaica minister of tourism, the Honourable Edmund Bartlett will serve as co-chair. Coleiro Preca, the President of Malta, has given her full backing to the centre and has been appointed honorary president. Prince Sultan Bin Salman, President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, will name a representative from the commission to the centre’s board.
Minister Bartlett told the ITIC launch event: “Tourism is not just
a social activity but an activity that develops capacity in people and countries to do better, to add value, to be able to withstand disruptions. The global reality is we are vulnerable to various types of disruption.”
He added that 79 countries on the planet have a dependency on tourism of 10% of GDP or more and these are countries that tend to suffer from high levels of unemployment.
“How do we balance the reality that the most tourism dependent countries are the poorest. How do we Generate the Investment we need to focus on building people and capacity?”