Every September, global leaders gather at the United Nations HQ in New York for what is billed as their Annual Summit. They assess the state of the world, offer their perspectives on global issues and initiate ideas to advance the Global Agenda known as the UN Sustainable Development Goals. in 2018, three years into the 15-year schedule (2016-2030) for achieving the SDGs, however, the chances of success appear dim.
Just two years before the end of the first two decades of the 21st Century, there appears to be an extraordinarily dangerous degree of global turmoil and tumult. The fact that the travel and tourism industry is growing exponentially should not lead to a false sense of complacency. Growth is creating its own set of problems. Both internally and globally, a Perfect Storm appears to be brewing. Like the hurricanes and typhoons which often devastate many popular tourism destinations, this
looming Perfect Storm could have devastating consequences. Many travel and tourism industry leaders who have great fondness for the concept of disruption may find themselves confronting more disruption than they can handle. Indeed, this hackneyed concept of “disruption” as some kind of force for good is long overdue to be trashed and recognised for what it really is, a potential threat to the world at large.
In May-June 2017, when I launched this unique publication The Olive Tree, with the support of Mr Hiran Cooray, Chairman of Jetwing Hotels, Sri Lanka, the game-plan was to boost awareness of how Travel & Tourism could become a part of the solution in thwarting the potential disruptions and achieving the SDGs. It was intended to look beyond climate change and launch a new process of mindset change.
Having spent the majority of my professional journalistic life covering Travel and Tourism, now widely known as the world’s most successful services sector, I firmly believe that this exceptional industry is both a major contributor to, and beneficiary of, the UN SDGs in their entirety, not selectively. And the month of September, which marks both the International Day of Peace and the International Day of Tourism, along with the UN Annual Summit, is the perfect launchpad for both a mindset change and an agenda change to thwart this looming Perfect Storm of man-made problems.
Like with previous issues, this September-October 2018 edition of The Olive Tree is full of material to provide some intellectual feedstock in pursuing that cause.
