UNWTO chief says number of tourists is not the enemy

Taleb Rifai (center)

Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Taleb Rifai has said that the number of tourists is not the enemy to a city and he suggested that Macau should take greater advantage of its tourism industry to develop the city.

The Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) held a public seminar yesterday with the UNWTO discussing about tourism development in the Asia Pacific region, demanding for human resources and education related to tourism.

During a plenary discussion, speakers were asked about how a tourism-focused city could put strategies in place to preserve its culture and identity.

“You know if you really think about it, cultural heritage and environmental heritage, if you want to call it as such, are the natural assets of tourism,” said Rifai.

“Culture is never static, culture is a design of so many years of development, and we don’t want to keep people where they are only, so you have to also keep in mind that travel is going to change us. We should not resist that change […] Culture is never something that stops at a point, our culture today is different from the culture of 30 years ago, the way we dress, the way we eat, the way we view- that’s our culture.  […] so let’s not be too dogmatic about this and say that we want to preserve things as they are, increase them as they are, whether it’s the environment or the culture[…].”

Replying to a question asked by one of the attendants of the event about the negative impacts that have been caused by the large number of tourists visiting Macau (including pollution and congestion) Rifai said that these effects are avoidable.

“Growth is not the enemy, numbers are not the enemy, the challenge is how to manage, it’s a management challenge. We are not doing our homework enough to manage the development and the growth of the tourism whether it’s in cities or in the countryside. We can provide everybody the right to visit whatever they want to visit, we can increase the number of people that visit Macau, and visit all the cities in the world. And at the same time, turn the power of these numbers to my advantage. […] To fight congestion, to make life better for you, we can do that, that’s what the challenges are all about. Because I tell you, there are certain tips and certain little things that we are sometimes not observing, that we simply surrendered […],” said Rifai.

“When you get more people, you get more revenues. Are we utilizing these revenues? […] Numbers and growth generate energy, and generate resources, we should use these resources to make the place better, not to look at the other options which is to stop the growing, stop the numbers.”

Rifai is the Secretary-General of UNWTO and is based in Madrid, Spain. He has held this position since January 1, 2010.