Prof Karen L Harris
As the world celebrates World Tourism Day on September 27, it is under a totally different premise and format than when the commemorative day was first launched in 1980.
The date was chosen to celebrate tourism worldwide as this was the day on which the statutes of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) were officially adopted.
A Nigerian national, Ignatius Amaduwa Atigbi, was responsible for the proposal to celebrate World Tourism Day annually.
According to the current Secretary-General of the UNWTO, Zurab Pololikashvili, “World Tourism Day has always been a chance to come together and celebrate the many and varied accomplishments of the sector”.
Adding that for the “best part of four decades … tourism’s unparalleled growth – in size, in reach and in significance” has been celebrated. However, in the post-pandemic period, it is a commemoration of a very different tourism sector.
Not only is it an economic sector that is having to grapple and reposition itself in terms of burning issues such as global warming and eco-greening, but it is also only just slowly emerging from the impact of the Covid-19 virus that brought the industry as we know it to a total standstill.
Since the inception of tourism, and in particular modern tourism in the latter half of the nineteenth century, tourism was fundamentally linked to the evolution of mobility and in particular travel technologies.
For example, it was the steam ship that introduced the first semblance of tourism with leisure travel taking place on rivers and along coastlines from the early nineteenth century to a primarily elite clientele.
Then, in the mid-nineteenth century, with the advances in rail transport, tourism was made accessible to a broader sector of society and across expanded landscapes. In particular, in the UK, the renown Thomas Cooke devised affordable packaged tours into the rural areas offering some relief from the negative impacts of the Industrial Revolution and urbanisation.
Following on from sea and rail mobilities, it was the technological innovation of flight which was to have the most revolutionary transformative impact on tourism, as it was to become one of the sectors with the widest global reach and one of the world’s largest economies. While the global North basically dominated the sector, it was to become of equal importance to the global South as a key income generator.
Thus, with borders closed, lockdowns implemented, flights grounded and people social distanced, Covid-19 totally dismantled and paralysed both the mobility and infrastructure of the industry.
The pandemic devastation was apparent in both the global North and global South and most particularly in those countries that were dependent on the industry as a major contributor to the GDP.
According to the UNWTO, as well as the African Union (AU), there was much evidence to suggest that the impact and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic would be “unprecedented”.
Moreover, in 2020, as the pandemic continued to rage across the globe, the UNWTO also indicated that the “restarting” of tourism after the crisis, would inevitably emerge in a “reconfigured” form.
It was, however, also at this time that many within the industry signalled this as a hiatus for the industry to “pause” and “reflect”.
It is therefore very fitting that the theme for the 2022 celebration of International Tourism Day is “Rethinking Tourism”.
Tourism entities across the globe are in agreement that it cannot be business as usual and thus with the “pandemic pause” an opportunity has arisen to rethink how tourism is done.
Besides an increasing awareness of the negative impacts of tourism in the twenty-first century in terms of overtourism, commodification of heritage, exploitation of culture, incursions into communities, damage to the environment and carbon emission with long haul travel, the industry has to now grapple with rebuilding a tourism economy and reputation that has been devastated by the pandemic paralysis of travel.
Tourism authorities across the world have, however, embraced the challenge to transform the sector and now make tourism far more sustainable, both economically and environmentally, strengthen its role within communities as an agent of change as well as ensure the safety of travellers in terms of disasters such as disease, terrorist attacks and war.
The world over has also seen a move towards the enhancement of the local tourism market so as to build a stronger and more viable supply segment starting with the local communities and the domestic traveller.
During the pandemic, the Covid-19 virus was regarded as a type of “catalyst” which induced the tourism industry to “redefine, re-imagine, reconsider, reignite and reinvigorate in order to restart”.
This “R-factor”, meant scrutinising the sector and then “remodelling” it in order for it not only to recover, but also to become resilient.
In other words, the reconfiguration was to be a sustainable solution to restart and resist future obstacles.
Much of the deliberations pivoted around the potential of the domestic market as this it is believed will in turn develop a stronger base for the long-term attraction of the international traveller.
It can still be argued that tourism remains a sector which not only crosses boundaries and builds bridges literally, but also metaphorically.
In a divided and complex world, responsible tourism is also a mechanism to bring visitor and host together, to understand different cultures, reduce prejudice and raise awareness of social issues.
Moreover, as emphasised by the Global code of Ethics for Tourism adopted some two decades ago in Santiago Chile, “through the direct, spontaneous and non-mediatised contacts (tourism) engenders between men and women of different cultures and lifestyles, (it) presents a vital force for peace and a factor of friendship and understanding among the people of the world”.
Tourism can thus be used as a tool of collaboration to facilitate initiatives that foster international cross-cultural cooperation and understanding, an improved environment, preserved heritage, all of which can contribute to a more sustainable and peaceful world.
This is in line with the vision of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) which strives to have the world’s largest industry become the first “global peace industry”. It is the light of these aspirations that the tourism industry worldwide is embarking on a new era of “rethinking tourism”.
* Prof Karen L Harris, Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, University of Pretoria