2018- Amman, Jordan—Former UNWTO Secretary-General Dr. Taleb Rifai today issued this statement upon joining the African Tourism Board as its Patron.
Travel & Tourism Today is a robust economic sector affecting and changing the lives of Billions of people around the world, but, beyond the numbers and the financial benefits of Generating $ 3.4 billion of global spending every DAY, Creating 1/10 jobs all over the world, and Representing 10.4 % of world GDP , Travell and Tourism, is today a major contributor to much more significant change and transformation that slowly and gradually is bringing us together, as humans, like never before. We and Africa are ONE in today’s world. Travel has connected us back to where it all started.
WE ALL CAME OUT OF AFRICA .
In today’s world, I would like to believe that the transformative power of Travel and Tourism, when well managed and utilized, is a cornerstone in establishing world peace and in turn a better world, for people and planet.
Protecting our cultural and natural heritage, empowering local communities. Breaking down stereotypes, enabling us to experience, enjoy, and celebrate the beauty of our rich cultural diversity,
These are some of tourism’s contributions to MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.
Just imagine what that means to Africa.
Mark Twain summed it up pretty well when he said
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Travel, my friends, opens minds, eyes, and hearts. We become better people when we travel.
That is why it’s a great honor for me to have joined ATB . It’s my, our opportunity to pay back to Africa, our motherland, the birthplace of mankind, a long-standing debt that we all owe
Come join us let us make Africa ONE again and be ONE with Africa
TALEB RIFAI