Tourism 'can bring peace to Middle East'

Tourism can help bring peace to the Middle East, World Tourism Organization (WTO) secretary-general Francesco Frangialli told the third Prime Minister’s Conference for Tourism to Israel held in Jerusalem this week. “Tourism and peace are inseparable,” said Mr Frangialli. “The forces unleashed by tourism are so powerful that they can change apparently irreversible situations and bring about reconciliation where none was considered possible.” He told the 600-plus delegates, among them government officials, diplomats and religious leaders, that tourism was “a harbinger of peace” for destinations and tourism operators in a small region like the Holy Land, “bound together by a common destiny and by a common interest in shared development projects.” Recalling the Millennium Week meetings organized by WTO in September 2000, which brought together the tourism ministers of Israel and Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Frangialli said there was a need to “strive unremittingly to ensure that the solidarity forged in the past emerges once again.” During that Millennium Week, WTO had relayed two messages – tourism can contribute decisively to furthering the peace process and, once peace is secured, would be the leading economic sector to benefit from it.