By Esther Wright
The United Nations (UN) World Tourism Day was celebrated on the 27th September, 2021by the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs together with its sub-vented agencies including the National Tourist Board (NTB) and the Monument and Relics Commission (MRC)on the theme, “Tourism Inclusive Growth in Attaining the SDGs and Agenda 2030 in Post Covid-19 Era”.
In 1980, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) declared September 27th as a special day for the celebration of the UN World Tourism Day to promote public awareness on the immense contributions of tourism to the socio-economic growth of nations, but to also promote peace and socio-cultural cohesion globally to reflect on the challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry. Since 2018, the Ministry and its stakeholders have consistently been organizing the celebration of the UN World Tourism Day in an effort to raise awareness of tourism’s contribution to livelihood, job creation and revenue generation.
This year’s observance of the World Tourism Day was marked by the organization of regional dialogues in Kenema, Bo and Makeni using the occasions to recognize the role tourism plays in fair trade and climate action to gender equality, indigenous rights and opportunities for youth. The celebration started with a procession from Cotton Tree to the Ministry’s Kingharman Road Office in Freetown.
In his opening statement, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Andrew L. Sorie said the Ministry joined the rest of the world to celebrate UN World Tourism Day, intimating that the sector is the hardest hit by Covid-19 with an international job loss of more than 100 million and international financial losses of over three trillion dollars but with it resilience, the sector is back on its feet, hence the need to celebrate this all important day, he said.
Explaining the purpose of the celebrations, the Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh, started by expressing appreciation to the UNDP for their immense support towards the celebrations, adding that the advent of Covid-19 has had a massive social and economic impact.
He continued that the resuscitation of the sector will help kick-start recovery and growth and the benefits will be enjoyed widely and fairly. He furthered that the theme was chosen as a result of the fact that the sector is a pillar of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and would provide an opportunity to promote tourism’s role in inclusive growth and identify how further progress can be made.
He said the various platforms will be used to sensitize stakeholders on the need to increase vaccine uptake thereby contributing to quickly subduing the Covid-19 virus and reducing risks for visitors to tourists destinations.
In her statement, the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt, intimated that this year’s global celebration of UN World Tourism Day was held in Ivory Coast and that she was looking forward to the day Sierra Leone will host the celebrations. She said there are lots of positive changes in the sector compared to how it was before 2018.
She maintained that considerable strides have been made in fostering the growth of the sector and that the Ministry will be presenting the first ever National Tourism Act.
The Minister added that all the other sectors have relationship with tourism and the framework to establish the link is the SDGs.
She revealed that the outcome of the regional deliberations have been so impactful in bringing tourism to inclusive development. She called for the promotion of Public-Private Partnership to ensure the creation of historic opportunities to advocate for policy decisions that are pro-women, pro-climate, sustainable ecotourism, pro-cultural and natural heritage development with the people at the center.
In his keynote address, the UN Resident Coordinator, Babatunde A. Ahonsi, recognized the value and potential of tourism to advance prosperity, inclusiveness and sustainable development and that tourism cuts across almost every part of our economies and societies.
He remarked that the tourism sector has great potential in accelerating progress towards achieving the SDGs particularly to Goal 14 “Life Below Water, Goal 8 “Decent Work and Employment” and Goal 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production”.
He maintained that the UN in Sierra Leone through the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, aligned to the Medium-Term Development Plan (2019-2023) and anchored in the 17 SDGs has committed its support towards the acceleration of economic development for the benefit of all, including those in the tourism sector. He stated that the UNDP has supported the tourism sector in many fronts saying that expanding the tourism sector will increase pressure on the natural biodiversity and the ecosystems on which the livelihoods of so many people and local communities depend.
High level panel discussions were held on climate change mitigation, protection of marine resources and biodiversity, ICT as a channel for effective marketing of the tourism sector and private sector partnership and effective policies and institutional capacity to improve tourism financial management.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Solomon Jamiru, Deputy Chairman Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Tourism, Emmanuel S. Conteh, the Principal of Milton Margai University of Science and Technology, Dr. Phillip Kanu President of Hotel and Tourism Association, Shallop were all part of the deliberations. The General Manager of the National Tourist Board, Fatmata Hamid Carew, ended the program with a remarkable parting message.
