The World Tourism Day is celebrated since 1980 on the on 27th of September. The celebration idea was put forward 1979 during the 3rd Session of UNWTO General Assembly in Torremolinos, Spain. The main objective behind the observation of this day is to bring a strong network between the countries and to promote tourism by emphasizing more on its cultural, political, economic and social values. In the year 1997 during the UNWTO General Assembly held in Istanbul, Turkey, there was a decision made which wanted a host country every year to be the Organization's partner involved in the various celebration of World Tourism Day. The other important factor of why this day was selected is that on the same day in the year 1970 the statues of World Tourism Organization (WTO) were taken in. This idea behind the adoption of the statue is considered to be a milestone in worldwide tourism. Ecotourism is a major sector coming up in the Tourism industry. Recently there is more emphasizes stressed on biodiversity and tourism for the former is a great asset for the great of tourism.

In today's world the tourism field is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. Promotion of the tourism field will lead to unity among different countries inspite of its wide diversification. It also helps in the discovery of many new places and its development which will in turn lead to the upliftment of a countries socio economic factors. It has become one of the major source of income for a country thus playing a major role in international commerce. There is also another reasonable fact behind the celebration of the Tourism day on September 27th, for it is during this time of tourist season in the northern hemisphere and the start of the tourist season in the southern hemisphere. The United Nations World Tourism Organization fixes a theme and a host country for each year, like for the year 2009 the theme was "Tourism - Celebrating Diversity" with Ghana as the host country.

There is no public holiday for the World Tourism Day though it invites people worldwide to participate in World Tourism Day on September 27 every year. As a part of celebration many events and festivities are conducted by tourism enterprises and organizations, as well as government bodies. Excellency in the field of tourism is recognized and awarded on this day. There are also various competitions like photo competitions etc are held to reflect the day's importance.There are special offers availed on this day to general public related to different areas of tourism. As a part of celebration the government and the representatives from the tourism field come forward with special discount on the fare to particular tourism destination and much more like this. Some of the other common events on the Tourism day include street rallies, bicycles parades, essay and poster competitions in schools and much more. There are many cultural events and competitions held mostly in educational institutions associated with tourism.

• 2000: Technology and nature: two challenges for tourism at the dawn of the twenty-first century (Host: Germany)
• 2001: Tourism: a toll for peace and dialogue among civilizations (Host: Iran)
• 2002: Ecotourism, the key to sustainable development (Host: Costa Rica)
• 2003: Tourism: a driving force for poverty alleviation, job creation and social harmony (Host: Algeria)
• 2004: Sport and tourism: two living forces for mutual understanding, culture and the development of societies (Host: Malaysia)
• 2005: Travel and transport: from the imaginary of Jules Verne to the reality of the 21st century (Host: Qatar)
• 2006: Tourism Enriches (Host: Portugal)
• 2007: Tourism opens doors for women (Host: Sri Lanka)
• 2008: Tourism Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change and global warming (Host: India)
• 2009: Tourism - Celebrating Diversity (Host: Africa.)

Relevant Links

• Tourist Destinations of India