On the occasion of United Nations Tourism’s annual September 27 celebration of World Tourism Day, the IUF wishes to build on the proposed slogan “Tourism and Peace” to insist that tourism and peace must be accompanied by freedom and human rights. Only a path built with rights will lead us toward the fair, sustainable sector that workers and tourists alike deserve. This vision of sustainable tourism must also include economic and social progress for the communities upon which the tourism sector is growing.
Workers in the tourism sector across many parts of the world are forced to work without freedom and without rights, including the right to organize, unionize and collectively bargain. Absent these enabling rights, healthy and safe workplaces are not possible, and good jobs with fair wages that can sustain families are a distant dream. Many workers suffer or have suffered imprisonment, harassment, judicial persecution, and reprisals for the simple fact of claiming these rights. These stories are well known across the IUF.
Despite exponential economic growth and a burgeoning industry, rights and freedom are not advancing. In fact, across much of the world, in the face of corporate power and state interests, we are seeing fundamental rights eroded. While the Official Programme of UN Tourism event on Tourism and Peace will feature authorities and representatives of countries where freedom and human rights are trampled daily, the IUF will use this day to lift up the voices of tourism workers so negligently silenced by the official proceedings.
As the HRCT Trade Group Board resolved at its meeting in Paris on Nov 1 and 2, 2023, “the IUF calls for a redoubling of global efforts to restore peace and respect for international law and human rights.” On World Tourism Day, we stand with tourism workers for freedom and rights and honour the ongoing struggles to achieve them.
