TOURISM ACCESSIBLE TO ALL MUST BE SUPPORTED

VATICAN CITY, SEP 8, 2000 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon in Rimini, Italy, Msgr. Piero Monni, Holy See permanent observer to the World Tourism Organization, spoke on the theme: "Problems faced by the WTO: tourism with a human face." His speech was part of an international convention on tourism taking place in Rimini from September 5 to 8.

In his address, Msgr. Monni recalled that the WTO last year approved a global code of tourism ethics. This code is a valuable aid in "increasing awareness of problems that arise within the complex world of tourism. An awareness that must develop in the relationship between the tourist industry and authorities in the local host communities, as well as between the users of the services and tourist operators."

He highlighted that "there is an ever growing need to establish universally-shared rules of behavior that may contribute to blocking phenomena - such as the sexual exploitation of children - already widespread throughout the world. For some time there has been talk of the 'globalization of sex tourism'." According to the U.N., "10 million children are victims of sexual violence." This phenomenon is spreading through almost the whole of Southeast Asia.

The permanent observer to the WTO indicated that the code of ethics "represents, in some way, the response and at the same time the consequence of this vital ethical reflection on values intrinsically connected to the individual."

In conclusion, Msgr. Monni made reference to the importance of "supporting sustainable tourism that is accessible to all and that may also represent a means of economic expansion for developing countries within the present international economic context; a context that is complex, from a social and political as well as from a religious point of view."

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