VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - #
DATE 02-07-2015
Summary:
- One billion tourists, one billion opportunities
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One billion tourists, one billion opportunities
Vatican City, 2 July 2015 (VIS) - "One billion tourists, one billion
opportunities" is the title of the Message for World Tourism Day 2015 (27
September), published today by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of
Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. The Message, dated 24 June, was signed by
Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio and Bishop Joseph Kalathiparambil, respectively
president and secretary of the dicastery.
The document, as its title indicates, focuses on the opportunities and
challenges that the great increase in tourism represents for contemporary
society and notes that the concept of the "tourist" is increasingly being
substituted by that of the "traveller", who does not merely visit a place but
rather, in a sense, becomes an integral part of it. In the light of Pope
Francis' Encyclical "Laudato si'", the Message highlights that the tourism
sector, by promoting appreciation of natural and cultural wealth, can promote
their conservation or, paradoxically, their destruction. The Message finally
invites the transformation of travel into "an existential experience".
"It was 2012 when the symbolic barrier of one billion international tourist
arrivals was surpassed. Now the numbers continue to grow so much that the
forecasts estimate a new threshold of two billion will be reached in 2030. To
this data even higher figures related to local tourism must be added.
For World Tourism Day we want to concentrate on the opportunities and
challenges raised by these statistics, and for this we make the theme proposed
by the World Tourism Organisation our own: 'One billion tourists, one billion
opportunities'.
This growth launches a challenge to all the sectors involved in this global
phenomenon: tourists, businesses, governments and local communities and, of
course, the Church too. The billion tourists should necessarily be considered
above all in their billion opportunities.
This message is being made public a few days after the presentation of Pope
Francis' Encyclical Laudato si' dedicated to care for our common home. We need
to take this text into great consideration because it offers important
guidelines to follow in our attention to the world of tourism.
We are in a phase of change in which the way of moving is changing and
consequently the experience of travelling as well. Those who go to countries
different from their own do so with the more or less conscious desire to
reawaken the most hidden part of themselves through encounter, sharing and
confrontation. More and more, a tourist is in search of direct contact with
what
is different in its extra-ordinariness.
By now the classic concept of a 'tourist' is fading while that of a
'traveller'
has become stronger: that is, someone who does not limit himself to visiting a
place but in some way becomes an integral part of it. The 'citizen of the
world'
is born: no longer to see but to belong, not to look around but to experience,
no longer to analyse but to take part in, and not without respect for what and
whom he encounters.
In his latest Encyclical, Pope Francis invites us to approach nature with
'openness to awe and wonder' and to speak 'the language of fraternity and
beauty
in our relationship with the world'. This is the right approach to adopt with
regard to the places and peoples we visit. This is the road to seizing a
billion
opportunities and making them bear even more fruits.
The businesses in this sector are the first ones who should be committed to
achieving the common good. The responsibilities of companies is great, also in
the tourist area, and to take advantage of the billion opportunities they need
to be aware of this. The final objective should not be profit as much as
offering travellers accessible roads to achieving the experience they are
looking for. And businesses have to do this with respect for people and the
environment. It is important not to lose awareness of people's faces. Tourists
cannot be reduced only to a statistic or a source of revenue. Forms of tourist
business need to be implemented that are studied with and for individuals and
invest in individuals and sustainability so as to offer work opportunities in
respect for our common home.
At the same time, governments have to guarantee respect for the laws and
create
new ones that can protect the dignity of individuals, communities and the
territory. A resolute attitude is essential. Also in the tourist area, the
civil
authorities of the different countries need to have shared strategies to create
globalised socio-economic networks in favour of local communities and
travellers
in order to take positive advantage of the billion opportunities offered by the
interaction.
From this viewpoint, also the local communities are called to open up their
borders to welcome those who come from other countries moved by a thirst for
knowledge, a unique occasion for reciprocal enrichment and common growth.
Giving
hospitality enables the environmental, social and cultural potentialities to
bear fruit, to create new jobs, to develop one's identity, and to bring out the
value of the territory. A billion opportunities for progress, especially for
countries that are still developing. To increase tourism, especially in its
most
responsible forms, makes it possible to head towards the future strong with
one's specificity, history and culture. Generating income and promoting the
specific heritage can reawaken that sense of pride and self-esteem useful for
strengthening the host communities' dignity, but care is always needed to not
betray the territory, traditions and identity in favour of the tourists. It is
in the local communities where there can grow 'a greater sense of
responsibility, a strong sense of community, a readiness to protect others, a
spirit of creativity and a deep love for the land. They are also concerned
about
what they will eventually leave to their children and grandchildren'.
One billion tourists, if well received, can become an important source of
well-being and sustainable development for the entire planet. Moreover, the
globalisation of tourism leads to the rise of an individual and collective
civic
sense. Each traveller, by adopting a more correct criterion for moving around
the world, becomes an active part in safeguarding the earth. One individual's
effort multiplied by a billion becomes a great revolution.
On a voyage, a desire for authenticity is also hidden which is realised in the
spontaneity of relations and getting involved in the communities visited. The
need is growing to get away from the virtual, which is so capable of creating
distances and impersonal acquaintances, and to rediscover the genuineness of an
encounter with others. The economy of sharing can also build a network through
which humanity and fraternity increase and can generate a fair exchange of
goods
and services.
Tourism also represents a billion opportunities for the Church's evangelising
mission. 'Nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts'.
First
of all, it is important for the Church to accompany Catholics with liturgical
and formative proposals. She should also illuminate those who during the
experience of travelling open their hearts and ask themselves questions and in
this way make a real first proclamation of the Gospel. It is essential for the
Church to go forth and be close to travellers in order to offer an appropriate
and individual answer to their inner search. By opening her heart to others,
the
Church makes a more authentic encounter with God possible. With this goal,
hospitality by the parish communities and the religious formation of tourist
personnel should be enhanced.
The Church's task is also to educate to living free time. The Holy Father
reminds us that 'Christian spirituality incorporates the value of relaxation
and
festivity. We tend to demean contemplative rest as something unproductive and
unnecessary, but this is to do away with the very thing which is most important
about work: its meaning. We are called to include in our work a dimension of
receptivity and gratuity, which is quite different from mere inactivity'.
Moreover, we should not forget Pope Francis' convocation to celebrate the Holy
Year of Mercy. We have to ask ourselves how the pastoral care of tourism and
pilgrimages can be an area to 'experience the love of God who consoles,
pardons,
and instils hope'. A particular sign of this jubilee time will undoubtedly be
the pilgrimage.
Faithful to her mission and starting from the conviction that 'we also
evangelize when we attempt to confront the various challenges which can arise',
the Church cooperates in making tourism a means for the development of peoples,
especially the most disadvantaged ones, and setting in motion simple but
effective projects. However, the Church and institutions should always be
vigilant to prevent a billion opportunities from becoming a billion dangers by
cooperating in the safeguard of personal dignity, workers' rights, cultural
identity, respect for the environment, and so on.
One billion opportunities also for the environment: 'The entire material
universe speaks of God's love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water,
mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God'. Between tourism and the
environment there is a close interdependency. The tourist sector, by taking
advantage of the natural and cultural riches, can promote their conservation
or,
paradoxically, their destruction. In this relationship, the Encyclical Laudato
si' appears to be a good travelling companion.
Many times we pretend we do not see the problem. 'Such evasiveness serves as a
license to carrying on with our present lifestyles and models of production and
consumption'. By acting not as masters but with 'responsible stewardship', each
one has his or her obligations that must be made concrete in precise actions
that range from specific, coordinated legislation down to simple everyday
actions, passing through appropriate educational programs and sustainable and
respectful tourist projects. Everything has its importance, but a change in
lifestyles and attitudes is necessary and surely more important. 'Christian
spirituality proposes a growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be
happy
with little'.
The tourism sector can be an opportunity, indeed, one billion opportunities
for
building roads to peace too. Encounter, exchange and sharing favour harmony and
understanding.
There are one billion occasions to transform a voyage into an existential
experience. One billion possibilities to become the makers of a better world,
aware of the riches contained in every traveller's suitcase. One billion
tourists, one billion opportunities to become 'instruments of God our Father,
so
that our planet might be what he desired when he created it and correspond with
his plan for peace, beauty and fullness'".
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