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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called on policy makers and businesses to work together to ensure everyone has the right to access tourism on an equal basis.
In his message for World Tourism Day, Ban said with almost 1.2 billion people traveling abroad each year, tourism has become a powerful economic sector and a transformative force improving millions of lives.
Ban also noted people living with disability, young children and seniors still face obstacles in accessing fundamentals of travel, like efficient transportation and public services as well as clear and reliable information.
In this regard, he encouraged relevant parties to work with people with special needs to remove all barriers, mental and physical, to travel.
World Tourism Day is celebrated annually on Sept. 27 to foster the awareness among the international community of social, cultural, political and economic value of tourism.
The theme for this year is "Tourism for all -- promoting universal accessibility."
