(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant
People has issued a Message for the 2012 World Tourism Day (September 27th).
The theme this year is “Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development”.
In
the message, the President of the Council, Antonio Maria Cardinal Vegliò, said:
“Tourism has an important role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals which
include ‘ensuring environmental sustainability’, and it must do everything in its
power so that these goals will be reached. Therefore, it has to adapt to the conditions
of climate change by reducing its emissions of hothouse gas, which at present represent
5% of the total. However, tourism not only contributes to global warming: it is also
a victim of it.”
The full message is below:
Pontifical
Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People
Message
for the 2012 World Tourism Day (September 27th)
“Tourism
and Sustainable Energy: Powering Sustainable Development”
The World
Tourism Day is celebrated on September 27th, promoted every year by the
World Tourism Organization (WTO). The Holy See has adhered to this initiative from
its first edition. It considers it an opportunity to dialogue with the civil world
and offers its concrete contribution, based on the Gospel, and also sees it as an
occasion to sensitize the whole Church about the importance of this sector from the
economic and social standpoint and, in particular, in the context of the new evangelization. As
this message is being published, the echoes are still heard from the Seventh World
Congress of the Pastoral Care of Tourism which was held last April in Cancún (Mexico)
at the initiative of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and
Itinerant People in collaboration with the Prelature of Cancún-Chetumal and the Mexican
Bishops' Conference. The work and the conclusions of that meeting will enlighten our
pastoral action in the coming years. Also in this edition of the World Day we
make the theme proposed by the WTO our own: “Tourism and Sustainable Energy: Powering
Sustainable Development”. It is in harmony with the present “International Year of
Sustainable Energy For All” promulgated by the United Nations with the objective of
highlighting “the need to improve access to reliable, affordable, economically viable,
socially acceptable and environmentally sound energy services and resources for sustainable
development”. Tourism has grown at a significant rhythm in the past decades. According
to the World Tourism Organization statistics, it is foreseen that during the year
in progress the quota will reach one billion international tourist arrivals, which
will become two billion in the year 2030. To these should be added the even higher
numbers involved in local tourism. This growth, which surely has positive effects,
can lead to a serious environmental impact owing, among other factors, to the immoderate
consumption of energy resources, the increase in polluting agents and the production
of waste. Tourism has an important role in achieving the Millennium Development
Goals which include “ensuring environmental sustainability” (goal 7), and it must
do everything in its power so that these goals will be reached. Therefore, it has
to adapt to the conditions of climate change by reducing its emissions of hothouse
gas, which at present represent 5% of the total. However, tourism not only contributes
to global warming: it is also a victim of it. The concept of “sustainable development”
is already engrained in our society and the tourism sector cannot and must not remain
on the margin. When we talk about “sustainable tourism”, we are not referring to one
means among others, such as cultural, beach or adventure tourism. Every form and expression
of tourism must necessarily be sustainable and cannot be otherwise. Along this
way, the energy problems have to be taken into due consideration. It is an erroneous
assumption to think that “an infinite quantity of energy and resources are available,
that it is possible to renew them quickly, and that the negative effects of the exploitation
of the natural order can be easily absorbed”. It is true, as the WTO Secretary
General points out, that “tourism is leading the way in some of the world’s most innovative
sustainable energy initiatives.However, we are also convinced that there
is still much work to be done. In this area also the Pontifical Council for the
Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People wishes to offer its contribution based
on the conviction that “the Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must
assert this responsibility in the public sphere”. It is not up to us to propose concrete
technical solutions but to show that development cannot be reduced to mere technical,
political or economic parameters. We wish to accompany this development with some
appropriate ethical guidelines which stress the fact that all growth must always be
at the service of the human being and the common good. In fact, in the Message sent
to the Cancún Congress mentioned earlier, the Holy Father stresses that it is important
“to shed light on this reality using the social teaching of the Church and promote
a culture of ethical and responsible tourism, in such a way that it will respect the
dignity of persons and of peoples, be open to all, be just, sustainable and ecological”. We
cannot separate the theme of environmental ecology from concern for an appropriate
human ecology in the sense of interest in the human being's integral development.
In the same way, we cannot separate our view of man and nature from the bond which
unites them with the Creator. God has entrusted the good stewardship of creation to
the human being. In the first place, a great educational effort is important in
order to promote “an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of
new life-styles”. This conversion of the mind and heart “allows us rapidly to become
more proficient in the art of living together that respects the alliance between man
and nature”. It is right to acknowledge that our daily habits are changing and
that a greater ecological sensitivity exists. However, it is also true that the risk
is easily run of forgetting these motivations during the vacation period in a search
for certain comforts to which we believe we are entitled, without always reflecting
on their consequences. It is necessary to cultivate the ethics of responsibility
and prudence and to ask ourselves about the impact and consequences of our actions.
In this regard, the Holy Father says: “The way humanity treats the environment influences
the way it treats itself, and vice versa. This invites contemporary society to a serious
review of its life-style, which, in many parts of the world, is prone to hedonism
and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences”. On this point, it will
be important to encourage both entrepreneurs and tourists to consider the repercussions
of their decisions and attitudes. In the same way, it is crucial “to encourage more
sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency”. These
underlying ideas must necessarily be translated into concrete actions. Therefore,
and with the objective of making the tourist destinations sustainable, all initiatives
that are energy efficient and have the least environmental impact possible and lead
to using renewable energies, should be promoted and supported to promoting the saving
of resources and avoiding contamination. In this regard, it is fundamental for the
ecclesial tourism structures and vacations proposals promoted by the Church to be
characterized, among other things, by their respect for the environment. All of
the sectors involved (businesses, local communities, governments and tourists) must
be aware of their respective responsibilities in order to achieve sustainable forms
of tourism. Collaboration between all the parts involved is necessary. The Social
Doctrine of the Church reminds us that “care for the environment represents a challenge
for all of humanity. It is a matter of a common and universal duty, that of respecting
a common good”. A good which human beings do not own but are “stewards” (Cf. Gn 1:28),
a good which God entrusted to them so that they would administer it properly. Pope
Benedict XVI says that “the new evangelization, to which all are called, requires
us to keep in mind and to make good use of the many occasions that tourism offers
us to put forward Christ as the supreme response to modern man’s fundamental questions”.
Therefore, we invite everyone to promote and use tourism in a respectful and responsible
way in order to allow it to develop all of its potentialities, with the certainty
that in contemplating the beauty of nature and peoples we can arrive at the encounter
with God.