2023: Origin of World Tourism Resilience Day
The World Tourism Resilience Day is one of the most recent of the United Nations’ days of observance.
Specifically, in resolution A/RES/77/269 of February 2023, the General Assembly – one of the main UN bodies – proclaimed 17 February as World Tourism Resilience Day.
A day intimately related to the SDGs, as we can see when we see that this document begins by reaffirming the resolution called ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ of September 2015, when these Goals were adopted.
This day of World Tourism Resilience Day is not related to World Tourism Day, a date that every 27 September since 1980 commemorates the creation on that day in 1970 of the statutes of the World Tourism Organization, a body based in Madrid and now renamed UN Tourism.
Resilient tourism and sustainability
The importance of tourism for certain states is such that it can account for more than 20% of GDP (gross domestic product) in developing countries or small island states.
In addition to this source of income, foreign exchange or employment, tourism can also connect nature with people and has the potential to stimulate both conservation and environmental responsibility.
Sustainable and resilient tourism can also serve to foster local culture and be an instrument to support sustained and inclusive economic growth.
It can also contribute to an acceleration towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns, as well as the promotion of sustainable uses of oceans, seas or marine resources.
Tourism in the 2030 Agenda
The United Nations sectoral organisation dedicated to tourism issues, UN Tourism, explains that harnessing the benefits of tourism will be key to achieving the SDGs.
Specifically, some of the targets of goals 8, 12 and 14 are related to sustainable and inclusive economic growth, sustainable consumption and production, and sustainable use of marine resources and oceans, as mentioned above.
However, tourism has the potential to link to each of the 17 SDGs. For example, for Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) tourism can stimulate agricultural productivity by promoting the production and sale of small producers.
Another example of tourism’s impact would be in Goal 10 (Reducing inequalities), as it can serve for community progress by reducing inequality if both local people and key stakeholders are involved in its development.
We can also find the influence of tourism in SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) since, as UN Tourism summarises, ‘a city that is not fit for its citizens is not fit for tourists’.
Therefore, sustainable tourism has the potential to improve urban infrastructures, promote the regeneration of decaying areas or preserve cultural and natural heritage, assets of great importance for tourism.
2027: International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism
In addition to International Days and Weeks, the UN also has a calendar of International Years, such as this 2025, which marks the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
Thus, in February 2024, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 2027 as the International Year of Sustainable and Resilient Tourism.
Resolution A/RES/78/260 invites Member States, the UN system and other actors to ‘take effective measures, in the context of sustainable and resilient tourism, including ecotourism initiatives, to promote the equal participation of women and the balanced participation of youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, at all levels and in decision-making processes’ in the framework of this annual observance.
The resolution also recognises that ‘sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, is a multi-sectoral activity that can contribute to all three dimensions of sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs’.
