United Nations, CMC—On Tuesday, President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Dennis Francis underscored the importance of the tourism sector to the global economy, noting that it accounts for three percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and has an estimated direct GDP of US$3.3 trillion.
“The sector employs one in every ten people around the world. And with women holding 54 percent of those jobs, versus 39 percent in the broader economy, tourism provides an important vehicle for women’s empowerment,” the Trinidad and Tobago diplomat told the opening of the High-Level Thematic Event on Tourism.
He told the conference that the tourism sector’s capacity to attract significant volumes of foreign direct investment and rapidly increase exports has made it an attractive and popular catalyst for development.
Francis said that tourism is an indispensable driver of income and tax revenue for countries in special situations, such as the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States. Not to mention employment directly created in the sector and those that are spin-offs in other sectors.
“In fact, in small island developing States alone, tourism accounts for nearly 35 percent of all export earnings, and as much as 80 percent of national exports.”
However, he noted that a country’s heavy dependence on tourism comes with costs and substantial potential risks.
“Despite the spectacular benefits reaped across its vast supply chains – tourism is also intrinsically susceptible to disruptive forces such as climate change, pandemics, acts of terrorism, and domestic political instability.
“When disasters strike, the economic fallout is often huge and immediate, felt painfully in losses to GDP, foreign currency earnings, and employment. Countries are only a crisis away from the near total destruction of the very economic base they need to pay for goods and services and other imports from abroad.”
Francis said in parallel that the tourism sector’s massive consumption of energy, land, and water – and crucially, its high generation of carbon emissions- can create unbearable pressures on fragile natural ecosystems if adequate attention is not paid to the issue of sustainability.
He said around the world, once vibrant coral reefs are falling victim to cruise ships, docking facilities, spikes in recreational fishing, and even land-based chemical effluent released into the environment that eventually finds its way to the sea.
Francis said in parts of Africa and elsewhere around the world, wildlife struggle for places to naturally graze, breed, and roam, as forests, rivers, and land continue to disappear, due in part to overuse, without any regard by the industry to the safe and optimum carrying capacity of those areas.
He said the explosive popularity of social media has only compounded these pressures, with “the fear of missing out” driving travelers to destinations in greater droves, in some cases causing a 1,000-fold increase in the visitor population.
“The resulting dire consequences are often borne by local communities, particularly indigenous peoples, who have preserved 80 percent of the Earth’s forests, grasslands, and other ecosystems for centuries.
“How are we to manage the unique challenges of growing this vital industry while preserving and protecting the precious and often fragile ecosystems that created it in the first place?”
The Trinidad and Tobago diplomat said what is needed is a sustainable global tourism sector—one with deep local value chains that expand demand for locally made products and services in ways that also directly and positively benefit local communities.
“A sector that serves as a positive force for biodiversity conservation, heritage protection, and climate-friendly livelihoods; a sector that harnesses digital technology, fosters innovation, and expands opportunities for job creation and economic growth, including for women, young people, indigenous and local communities,” he said, noting that “to get there, we must value what counts.”
He said he was therefore inviting the General Assembly to support the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism, which was adopted at the UN Statistical Framework just last month.
“It offers a much-needed foundation for measuring the economic, social, and environmental aspects of tourism at both local and global levels,” Francis said, noting that “sustainable tourism alone is not enough to create long-term stability in the sector and to guarantee job sustainability.
“We also need a global tourism sector that is resilient, a sector that understands and caters to its vulnerability, helps to formalize the informal economy, and is designed and built such that the physical plant can withstand external environmental shocks and has necessary ancillary systems in place to minimize the period of recovery after a disruptive event.”
Francis said that in such a scenario, many opportunities abound for multistakeholder solid partnerships.
He said the increased focus on public-private partnerships is required as a broad diversification of activities so that countries and communities are better supported to shorten the recovery time needed to resume entire operations after a disruptive event.
“Above all, there must be recognition that the key sectors of the economy and issues featured throughout Sustainability Week, that is to say, resilient infrastructure, sustainable transport, renewable energy, and relief from the unjust burden of excessive debt – are all essential to building sustainability and resilience in the global tourism sector.
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