New research by World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) shows that the travel and tourism sector can be a driver of peace. With terror and security scares against tourists filling many headlines in the past few months, WTTC has launched a new research report quantifying the links between tourism and peace.
While travel and tourism has often been recognised for its ability to drive peace, security, and understanding, to date, there has been little empirical evidence to support this link.
The report, Tourism as a Driver for Peace, conducted with the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), shows the significance of an open and sustainable tourism sector for the levels of peace in a country.
Countries with more open and sustainable tourism sectors have higher levels of peace and lower levels of conflict and violence. Increase in tourism sustainability can lead to improvements in the functioning of governments. As governments respond to tourism demand and create a welcoming environment for further tourism expansion, this ultimately increases future peace, the report states.
Over the last decade, the world has become increasingly unequal in terms of its levels of peacefulness, with the most peaceful countries enjoying increasing levels of peace and prosperity, while the least peaceful countries are facing greater levels of violence and conflict.
The research shows that the more sustainable and open a country’s tourism sector, the less peace levels have declined. Even in conflict affected countries, all of which saw their levels of peace drop in the period between 2008 and 2015, those that had more open and sustainable tourism saw a significantly lower drop in peace than countries with less sustainable tourism sectors.
David Scowsill, president and CEO, WTTC, said, “Travel and tourism sector’s economic impact is now well established and widely recognised, and governments around the world are increasingly looking to the sector to provide livelihoods and jobs, and drive economic development. However, the benefits of tourism as a force for good, its ability to bring peace, security, and understanding have been harder to quantify. I am delighted that this research now shows that travel and tourism does have a strong link to creating peaceful societies. In a world of increasing risk and security concerns, this research is compelling evidence of why governments should continue to focus on tourism development for the good of their people, and make policy decisions that balance the safety of their citizens with the continued facilitation of travel for business and leisure purposes.”
Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman, IEP, added, “The data shows how tourism and peace can support each other and increase societal resilience, prosperity, and peace in the long term. This also shows how the tourism sector is one of the key areas in which the private sector can play a positive and tangible role in contributing to global peace.”
