【明報專訊】From sightseers going down a Paris side street to backpackers navigating the way to the farthest corners of the world, travellers are part of an ever-ongoing movement celebrated by the World Tourism Day (世界旅遊日).
◆Basic Facts
Date: 27 September
First celebrated: 1979
Proclaimed by: United Nations General Assembly(聯合國大會)
Aim: To foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, political and economic value.
◆Tourism in numbers
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (世界旅遊組織), in 2015, the number of international tourists rose by 4.4% worldwide to hit a record 1.18 billion. France continued to be the world's most popular tourist destination, followed by the United States, Spain and China. The reasons for such increase include the depreciation (貶值) of the Euro (歐元), which made travelling to Europe more attractive to Americans, and falling oil prices, which reduced transport costs.
According to 2014 data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), of all the countries and regions in the world, Macao is the most reliant on tourism. That year, the tourism industry accounted for 43.9% of its GDP. The nine other holders on the top ten list are all islands, including the Maldives (馬爾代夫) and the Seychelles (塞舌爾) (in the Indian Ocean) and the British Virgin Islands (英屬處女群島), the Bahamas (巴哈馬), Aruba (阿魯巴) and Anguilla (安圭拉) (in the Caribbean.)
Why is tourism important?
Tourism is the business of providing things people can do, and places they can stay in while they are on holiday. It is many country's major source of income, and is vital to industries like transportation (such as airlines, cruise ships, and taxicabs), hospitality (such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts) and entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, casinos, shopping malls, music venues, and theatres.
Tourism is also of significant social and cultural importance. Socially, it helps promote a real sense of pride and identity to communities and allows them to showcase their distinctive lifestyle, history and culture and preserve their traditions. Tourism also helps finance the conservation of ecosystems and natural resource management.
Hong Kong's tourism industry
Tourism is one of the pillars of Hong Kong's economy. According to statistics from the Tourism Commission (旅遊事務署), in 2015 59,307,596 visitors came to Hong Kong, falling 2.5% over the previous year. On average these visitors spent 3.3 nights in our city. All in all, inbound tourism generated HK＄332.3 billion. Mainland China continued to be Hong Kong's largest visitor source market with 45.8 million arrivals (-3.0% over 2014), accounting for 77% of all total arrivals.
World Tourism Day
Since 1980, the UNWTO has celebrated World Tourism Day on September 27. A host country is designated each year to act as the Organization's partner in the celebration of World Tourism Day. This year, the official World Tourism Day 2016 celebrations will be held in Thailand. The motto of World Tourism Day is ''Tourism for all''.
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