World Tourism Day is on September the 27th. It has been going since 1980 and was started by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The purpose of this day is to raise awareness of the role of tourism internationally. The UNWTO hopes to highlight how tourism affects societies, cultures and economies worldwide. Since 1997, a host country acts as a partner to the UNWTO to celebrate World Tourism Day. There is a different theme each year. The first theme, in 1980, was tourism's contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage and to peace and mutual understanding. Other themes have included youth tourism, tourism as a force for world peace, and tourism and climate change.

Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world. It employs millions of people and generates billions of dollars. Many developing countries rely on tourist dollars for their survival. In recent decades tourism has boomed. People are richer, air travel is cheaper and many closed borders are coming down. The collapse of communism has seen millions of new tourists coming out of Russia and the former communist countries. This increase in tourism does create problems. In many of the world's top tourist destinations, there is a strain on the environment. The huge number of tourists is in danger of destroying the reason for sites being so popular. World Tourism Day is a good time to look at our global responsibilities as tourists.

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