27 September: World Tourism Day

On 27 Sept 2010, representatives from 160 countries came together in Guangzhou, China to celebrate the World Tourism Day (27 September) and discuss the future development of the industry. The theme for the World Tourism Day 2010 was Biodiversity. The 2010 World Tourism Day theme was designed to provide a unique opportunity to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity to tourism and the role of sustainable ecotourism. China was made the host country for this year's celebration by World Tourism Organization (WTO).

The United Nations World Tourism Organization has been celebrating World Tourism Day on September 27 since 1980. The day is celebrated as World Tourism Day to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide. At the Twelfth Session of the UNWTO in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 1997, the UNWTO General Assembly decided to designate a host country every year to act as the Organization's partner in the celebration of World Tourism Day. At its Fifteenth Session in Beijing, China, in October of 2003, the Assembly decided the following geographic order to be followed for World Tourism Day celebrations, like- 2006 in Europe; 2007 in South Asia; 2008 in the Americas and 2009 in Africa.