World Tourism Day Celebrated

Tourism professionals again this year paid little heed to World Tourism Day celebrated last month on September 27. The exception, once more, was the Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourism Agents (HATTA), which held a reception at the Benaki Museum to honor the event.

The Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) was the only other tourism forum that paid any attention to the celebration. It penned a letter in which it stressed the importance of tourism development through dialogue and cooperation in an overall natural, community and intergovernmental environment and that in today’s environment peace, dialogue and cooperation take on monumental importance.

Although decided upon last year, the theme for World Tourism Day 2001, “Peace and Dialogue among Civilizations” is quite apt for today considering recent events. It was created by the World Tourism Organization in hopes to draw attention to tourism’s notable contribution to securing peace among peoples and to strengthening the interaction and cultural and trading links between civilizations.

The WTO, which planned and launched this year’s event in Islamic Republic of Iran, said it is “confident that, with the good will of all and because of the sense of common purpose that has formed a bond between the sector’s economic players, sooner rather than later tourism will play a decisive part in reviving the peace process in the region.”