We wish a happy UNWTO World Tourism Day to All Our Stakeholders

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has been celebrating the World Tourism Day on September 27 every year since 1980.

The World Tourism Day celebrations take place in a different country each year on a different theme. This year, the World Tourism Day will be hosted by Qatar.

The theme of this year’s World Tourism Day is “Sustainable Tourism: A Tool for Development”.
It is envisioned that 1.8 billion international tourists will cross borders by 2030. One may say that this expectation is grounded on the notion of “sustainability”.

It should be remembered that 2030 is also the year in which Turkey is expected to be the “star country” in the tourism industry. By 2030, Turkey is expected to receive 90 million international travelers and reach a revenue volume of USD85 billion. Turkey is also expected to be among the top 4 or 5 countries around the world.

Although this outstanding achievement is surely well-deserved by our stakeholders from the tourism industry, in today’s conjectural circumstances, our tourism stakeholders strive to survive and turn their hopeful expectations into reality with unwavering commitment and resilience.

Under the current industry conditions, Turkish tourism professionals endeavor to take the right steps for profit and cost management in their quest for new markets, while they maintain their positive expectations for tourism, the only industry “whose existence depends on peace”.

As one of the key industries of our country, tourism must be supported and promoted with an ever increasing interest in recognition its capabilities to bring in fresh and international money flow, create new employment opportunities, contribute to the Turkish economy with the highest multiplier effect of each 1 Dollar brought in, and bring societies closer to each other, as well as its respect for nature and local cultures, and its peace-dependent existence.

We wish a happy September 27 World Tourism Day to all our stakeholders who respect and honor nature, cultures, and guests. We extend our deepest respect to them in recognition of their endless quest and outstanding achievements. We also promise that we will continue to bring in distinguished graduates to the industry and prepare world-class and well-educated youth.

M. Teoman Alemdar
Director of the School of Applied Sciences
Department of Hotel Management -the Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts
Özyeğin University