WTTC: Is it too much to ask?

27 Apr 2017 2041 | World Travel News

BANGKOK “Is it Too Much to Ask?” was the opening line of the World Travel & Tourism Council president & CEO David Scowsill’s speech, at the WTTC Global Summit hosted in Bangkok, Wednesday.

Scowsill urged over 900 leading figures from the public and private sector to stand up and make a real difference, to think about ‘how we can be ‘Transforming our World’.

Scowsill called on the sector to lead the world in the “eradication of poverty, cleaning up the oceans, and protecting habitats”.

David Scowsill

WTTC’s data and research shows travel and tourism stimulates the economy by generating over USD7.6 trillion globally, supporting over 292 million jobs, which is now 1 in 10 jobs worldwide. The sector has grown faster that the global economy consistently in the last six years.

Highlighted as a specific driver of three of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, business and leisure travel will help shape the global agenda for the next 15 years.

“We are now seeing the recalibration of global politics, it is becoming clearer that the economic growth we have enjoyed over the past half century, and the globalisation that has driven it, is not working for everyone. Governments are calling into question some of the basic freedoms of people movement and trade, upon which all our businesses so depend,” Scowsill said.

Scowsill continued that in the face of terrorism and natural disasters, travel and tourism has continued to show resilience as people continue to move around the world.

“The fear engendered by dividing us into races or religions destroys the notion that each human being is unique. I believe wholeheartedly that closed borders lead to closed minds; that travel makes the world a better, more peaceful place, and that human encounters across cultures change us for the better.”

“Travel is not for a privileged few. The world and its astonishing beauties are for everyone. We believe in the fundamental right of anyone to travel, regardless of their nationality, gender, religion, sexual orientation or age. Our sector must be accessible to all.”