Sri Lanka to celebrate World Tourism Day tomorrow

Wednesday, 26 September 2012 00:53 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

World Tourism Day is celebrated worldwide on 27 day of September each year. This year will mark the 33rd Anniversary of the UNWTO World Tourism Day and UNWTO has declared ‘Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development’ as this year’s theme.

The Ministry of Economic Development along with Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority organised the World Tourism Day 2012 (WTD12) Celebrations in Sri Lanka. The main ceremony will be held in Colombo to organise a seminar on ‘Tourism and Sustainable Energy’ on 27 September at Ramada Hotel. Further island wide celebrations took place in all provinces with the support of provincial administrations and stakeholders under the Ministry of Tourism’s declared Tourism Week program.

The seminar will speak five professional resource persons to the following topics:

‘Current Energy Related Issues and Adoption of Sustainable Energy Resources in Tourism Sector’ by Switch Asia Program Greening Sri Lanka Hotel Project Project Director Srilal Miththapala; ‘Energy Management in the Hotel Sector: Concepts and Trends’ by Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) Research Officer Kanchana Wickramasinghe; ‘Energy Efficiency and Management in the Hotel Sector in Sri Lanka’ by Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Energy Authority Director Chamila Jayasekara; ‘Case studies on Sustainable Energy Resources in Hotels in Sri Lanka’ by Aitken Spence Hotels Head of Engineering Rohitha Rajarathna and Panel discussion moderated by Switch Asia Program Greening Sri Lanka Hotel Project Senior Environmental Engineer, Prof. Niranjani Rathnayake.

A host of activities at provincial level involving school children, civil society and industry will be held as well to celebrate the World Tourism Day.

World Tourism Day (WTD) 2012 is being held under the theme Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development. Official celebrations will take place in Maspalomas, Spain (Sept. 27). This year’s theme aims to highlight tourism’s role in a brighter energy future; a future in which the world’s entire population has access to modern, efficient and affordable energy services. Tourism, one of the world’s largest economic sectors, has already taken important steps towards this future – improving energy efficiency and increasingly using renewable energy technologies in its operations.

These steps are creating jobs, lifting people out of poverty and helping to protect the planet. Be part of World Tourism Day 2012! Take part in the photo competition, go to online energy school, let us know how you will be celebrating and keep checking back for more information on WTD activities and celebrations

“As we celebrate World Tourism Day 2012, I urge all tourism stakeholders – governments, businesses and tourists themselves – to play their part in reaching the UN goal of achieving sustainable energy for all by 2030and position tourism at the centre of the clean energy economies of the future,” UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai said.