UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai : tourism is the third most important industry in the world
Romania has become a success story in tourism and is deserves more, as it has attractions nowhere else to be found, United Nations' World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General Taleb Rifai told on Thursday an international conference "Integrated Quality Management in Tourism Destinations: A Key to Competitiveness."
He said the most important thing is that tourists in Bucharest will be impressed with the smile of everyone there, a real and very sweet smile, which you don't get to see in other parts of the world, adding that Romania has become a success story in tourism and it deserves more.
According to Rifai, although humankind hasn't completely recovered from the 2008-2009 economic crisis, people continue to travel and tourism is growing all over the world.
Rifai said people have crossed borders defying all obstacles and this movement represents a true change in our lives.
He added that the IT revolution also played a part, as today's world is steered by the revolution of travelling and the IT revolution. He showed that technology has given a voice to the silent. Through social media, he says, people have understood that they are more important than the governments and the companies they work for. Today's traveller is much more informed and putting together 50 people on a bus and showing them around, telling them who built what and when no longer works, as tourists want to get off the bus, talk to security, eat local food. Therefore, Rifai said, everything must be consumer-oriented.
According to him, there were over 2 billion tourists worldwide in 2015. Tourism contributed 10 percent to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), generating 1.4 trillion dollars. Tourists spend 3.5 billion dollars a day worldwide.
Rifai also said many people don't take tourism very seriously, although it is the third most important industry in the world; 66 years ago there were only 22 million cross-border travellers. Today, one in 11 jobs is created in tourism, and each job in tourism creates another 1.4 jobs in related domains.
He also said tourism is one of the most efficient diplomatic instruments, as it mainly consists of socialising.
The WTO official showed how travelling has become a powerful transformation engine on a social and political level. Tourism is one of the most efficient diplomatic instruments, because there are people meeting people, eating and dancing together, he said, adding that tourist workers believe their business is to help the world improve.
Romania's National Authority for Tourism (ANT), in partnership with the United Nations' World Tourism Organization on Thursday is organising the "International Conference on Integrated Quality Management in Tourism Destinations: A Key to Competitiveness."
This event, of a major importance to national and international tourism, sets to promote and develop on an international level a new tourism trend related to the organisations working in destination management, entailing an integrated vision of all the components defining and shaping up a tourist destination. Over 100 international tourism industry officials are attending.