Travel and tourism create economic growth

Citation

(2000), "Travel and tourism create economic growth", Work Study, Vol. 49 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2000.07949eaf.003

Travel and tourism create economic growth

Keywords Tourism, Travel, Economic growth

Leading politicians and travel industry chiefs representing 35 countries have signed the 2000 Vilamoura Declaration confirming the importance of travel and tourism as a force for economic growth, job creation and world peace. The document, signed in Vilamoura, Portugal, also endorsed travel and tourism as a coalition builder between the public sector, private enterprise and communities at the local, national and regional levels.

The 2000 Vilamoura Declaration was the result of the 2nd World Travel & Tourism Summit which was attended by Ministers of the Economy, Finance, Employment and Tourism, along with, travel and tourism industry leaders and over 100 members of the international media community. The keynote address was delivered by Jorge Sampaio, President of the Portuguese Republic.

Spearheaded by the World Travel & Tourism Council, the 2000 Vilamoura Declaration is based on the original Declaration which resulted from the first World Travel & Tourism Summit also held in Vilamoura in 1997. The result of that first summit was a call to action for the public and private sectors as partners to generate employment growth through travel and tourism. Many responded to that call - in the three years since then, some 8.5 million jobs have been created as a result of growth in travel and tourism.

From this success, the 2000 Vilamoura Declaration makes further commitments:

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  to continue to measure and promote the importance of travel and tourism as a force for economic growth, job creation and peace to major politicians and economic policy-makers;

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  to foster co-operation between private enterprise, the public sector and local communities at local, national and regional levels;

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  to encourage the development of infrastructure and human capital resources to meet future growth in demand for travel and tourism;

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  to develop tourism that is sustainable - economically, socially and environmentally.

"Our first call for public-private sector partnerships in 1997", says Jean-Claude Baumgarten, President of the World Travel & Tourism Council, "proved itself to be an unequivocal success not only for the public sector and private enterprise but also for communities around the world. Looking forward, there is a tremendous sense that travel and tourism will be the industry that will become everybody's future."

The World Travel & Tourism Council is the Global Business Leaders' Forum for Travel & Tourism. Its central goal is to work with governments to realise the full economic impact of the world's largest generator of wealth and jobs - travel and tourism. For further details visit www.wttc.org