In the afternoon of 27 September, 2016 World Tourism Day Official Celebration was held in Bangkok, Thailand. H.E. Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand, Mr. Xu Jing, Executive Secretary and Director of Regional Program for Asia and the Pacific of World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Dr. Pusadee Tamthai, Acting Mayor of Bangkok, Mr. Mario Hardy, CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), David Scowsill, President and CEO of World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), and Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, former Secretary-General of UN Conference on Trade and Development, attended and addressed the event. ASEAN-China Centre Secretary-General Yang Xiuping participated in the above-mentioned activity.
Dr. Pusadee Tamthai provided an update on the work of Bangkok on promoting tourism infrastructure development, conserving the environment and cultural heritage. He said that Bangkok, a popular tourism destination, would seek new development path and take the tourism industry to a higher level. Leaders of related tourism organizations and associations mentioned their efforts on promoting tourism cooperation, expanding market and facilitating tourism accessibility. They stressed that the industry should seek all-round development, better understand customer needs, exchange ideas and learn from each other, and achieve win-win results among all stakeholders.
H.E. Prayut Chan-o-cha stressed that tourism was a basic right for all, and to realize “tourism for all” need efforts from all parties. In recent years, Thailand had done a lot to promote cultural, ecosystem, green, and medical tourism, and had effectively enhanced the synergetic development between tourism sector and other industries. In 2015, Thailand welcomed 30 million in-bound tourists and was ranked as the top tourism destination in Southeast Asia. Tourism took on an increasingly important role in Thailand’s national economy by creating new jobs and raising income levels of rural and urban residents. Thai Government had already worked out the Strategic Plan for National Tourism Development 2017-2021 which would upgrade road and tourism destination construction in order to attract more visitors around the world and promote social and economic sustainable development in Thailand.
On behalf of UNWTO, Mr. Xu Jing thanked the people from all walks of life of Thailand for their great support for the event. He said that each year more than 1.2 billion people travel for tourism all over the world, however 15% percent of them traveled with certain kind of disability. Therefore, “Tourism for All” should be a priority for international tourism development, tourism policy making and economic strategy. He wished that through this activity, people around the world could put their head together to create a more comfortable environment in a joint effort to move forward the tourism industry.