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With 940 million tourists crossing international borders in 2010, never have the world’s peoples and cultures been drawn together as now. Through tourism, millions of people are brought closer every day. World Tourism Day (WTD) 2011 is taking place under the theme Tourism – linking cultures and is a celebration of tourism’s role in breaking down barriers across cultures and fostering tolerance, respect and mutual understanding. In our often divided world, these values represent the stepping stones towards a more peaceful future. Promoting and developing tourism with a view to contributing to economic development, international understanding, peace, prosperity, and universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all is at the heart of UNWTO’s mandate. Every people and every place possess a unique culture. Experiencing different ways of life, discovering new food and customs and visiting cultural sites have become leading motivations for travel, and as a result, a crucial source of revenue and job creation, particularly for developing countries. Income from tourism is often redirected towards the safeguarding of these sites and even the revitalization of cultures.

Focusing on the people behind the tourism numbers and maintaining an honest and open relationship with the media: these are among the main recommendations to emerge from discussions between media representatives and tourism officials attending the first UNWTO International Conference on Tourism and the Media (12-13 September, Zagreb, Croatia). Under the title ‘Tourism in the Headlines’ and in partnership with the Government of Croatia and the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET), the conference aimed to to analyze the relationship between tourism and the media and address why, despite being one of the world’s largest economic sectors, tourism is not sufficiently featured in the political, business or financial news. Opening the conference, Croatian Prime Minister, Jadranka Kosor, stressed the relevance of tourism as “an engine of economic growth and one of the most effective creators of new jobs,” pointing to the need to reflect this message in the media. This was further echoed by the Minister of Tourism of Croatia, Mr. Damir Bajs, who underlined the main aim of the conference: “to join forces and to try and find ways to give more media importance to such a significant global sector as tourism”.