Taleb Rifai, the UNWTO Secretary-General, has clarified that “tourism is a surprisingly strong and resilient economic activity as well as a fundamental contributor to the economic activity” in his opening speech at the Spain Global Tourism Forum. Certainly, tourism has shown a dynamic increase in international tourist arrivals, recording 1,130 million in 2014, occupying 9% of global GDP, and creating one in every 11 jobs worldwide. Particularly, Asia and the Pacific region showed the strongest growth in tourism population, welcoming 263 million international tourists in 2014. By sub-region, North-East and South Asia recorded a firm growth of 7% on average. Further, some of the major popular destinations achieved even higher increases, suggested as follows: Japan (+29%), Taiwan (Province of China)(+24%), and the Republic of Korea in North-East Asia and India (+11%), and Sri Lanka (+20%) in South Asia.
In this sense, the session will look at how tourism finance can be implemented sustainably in line with the 2030 UN agenda. It will also show some positive cases of economic development through local participation in operating tourism finance.