Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) joined the world in celebrating World Tourism Day on Friday.
The global day of recognition of tourism’s importance is organised by the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) each year on September 27.
QTA organised a local photography competition on social media, and an internal awareness campaign among the employees to promote water conservation.
Centered on the theme “Tourism and Water: Protecting our Common Future”, World Tourism Day 2013 underlines tourism’s responsibility and needed commitment to preserving the world’s vital water resources.
The theme is in line with the UN General Assembly’s declaration of 2013 as the United Nations International Year of Water Co-operation, providing the opportunity to further highlight the shared responsibility of the tourism sector to the wider
sustainability objective.
Using World Tourism Day as a platform, QTA aims to raise awareness of the importance of tourism as a key enabler of the national economy, as well as to shed light on tourism’s responsibility to ensure sustainable management of Qatar’s water
resources for the future.
To celebrate this important occasion, QTA launched a photo competition on its social media channels on September 23 to highlight the role that the tourism industry and its facilities, play in conserving water.
Participants in the competition were invited to submit photos of natural and tourist attractions in Qatar as well as of those showing creative ideas to save water and reduce waste. QTA set September 27 as the date on which the winners would be
announced.
QTA’s participation in World Tourism Day celebrations followed the recent agreement signed by QTA and UNWTO within the framework to develop Qatar’s tourism industry and in line with other initiatives in an integrated and sustainable
programme for hotel facilities.
