UNWTO accused of bitter irony

TAAF says ‘Billion Opportunities’ campaign disregards countless homeless ‘irregular tourists’ forced to travel because of climate change and wars

Says Tourism Advocacy and Action Forum "The UNWTO’s party could not take place at a more inconvenient time as the world is experiencing an acute humanitarian crisis with more people being displaced than at any time since World War II, according to the UNHCR."

 "This year’s World Tourism Day theme ‘1 Billion Tourists – 1 Billion Opportunities’ sounds like a slogan for an advert to entice consumers to buy a product like a laundry detergent or hamburger."

"As the UNWTO cheers the one billion people officially counted as tourists, there is no appreciation of countless other ‘irregular tourists’ who are forced to travel because they have become homeless in their homelands due to war, civil strife, loss of livelihoods, environmental destruction and climate change impacts.

Whilst countries in the South have opened up and created a welcoming culture for vacationers, residential tourists and business travellers, the forum accuses many rich countries in the North of now implementing measures to combat the supposed threat of ‘illegal immigration’.

It claims that the ‘irregular tourists’ are increasingly criminalized, facing xenophobia plus policies of isolation and deterrence in destination countries.

According to the forum: "The United States, Europe and Australia are also fortifying their borders, sometimes with barbed wire fences and heavily armed police and military forces."

"The result is that the conventional travel industry is supplemented with a burgeoning multi-billion dollar industry – that of human trafficking, which puts migrants’ and refugees’ lives at risk."

"The notion of the Mediterranean Sea as a popular holiday heaven is rapidly eroding as it has become the world’s deadliest maritime migration route, with ships full of refugees capsizing and people, many of them children, drowning almost on a daily basis."

"There is now a state of exception in Europe. National governments have even begun to ‘temporarily’ suspend the Schengen agreement – the treaty that gives most EU citizens the right to travel freely across European borders – with the argument that the influx of migrants and refugees poses a "serious threat to public policy or internal security."

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein recently strongly criticized the Hungarian government for breaching international law, saying the country’s harsh measures are "an entirely unacceptable infringement of the human rights of refugees and migrants. Seeking asylum is not a crime, and neither is entering a country irregularly."

The forum says that the UNWTO must stop acting like a PR agency for the travel and tourism industry and genuinely work for the common good of humanity as deemed appropriate for a UN body.

"It is unreasonable and immoral to talk about ‘1 billion opportunities’ including livelihood opportunities for the poor, while disregarding all research and scientific data that reveal tourism’s vast opportunity costs, including displacement, dispossession and impoverishment of people particularly in the developing world."

The forum calls for an impartial and sincere review of tourism to explore the question: tourism offers opportunities for whom?

"Victor Hugo’s saying "The paradise of the rich is made out of the hell of the poor" appears perfect to describe tourism in a world of growing inequality and receding human rights."

Valere Tjolle

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