The world day of tourism 2011 under the slogan »Tourism – linking cultures« celebrates the role of tourism in removing barriers among cultures and in encouraging tolerance, respect and mutual understanding.
As the organizers of the leading tourist fair in the Alps-Adriatic region, we too are aware of the importance of linking various cultures, this is why we established a mutual partnership for this year's Fair with the Project Group on Tourism at the Alps-Adriatic Working Community and with the honourable sponsors, Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Slovenia and City Municipality of Ljubljana, aimed at converting the tourist fair into a meeting point of Alps-Adriatic tourist actors.
The necessity of linking on a regional level was emphasized by Dr. Wolfgang Platzer, Secretary General of the Alps-Adriatic Working Community, who used the opportunity of the Fair opening ceremony in January to state: »… I believe it's time to make a step further: we need a common approach for the common marketing of the whole region in interesting tourist markets across the world – after all, the Working Community covers the area from Lombardy to Hungary, from Burgenland to the far south of Croatia. Slovenia and Croatia are examples of good practice and I hope that marketing experts from other parts of the region will follow them to our common benefit. We must not perceive each other as competitors as our common Alps–Adriatic region really has a lot to offer«, concluded Platzer.
The mission of the Alpe–Adria: Tourism and Leisure Show is to encourage friendship, understanding and multicultural dialogue as well as to establish links in the field of tourism in the Alps-Adriatic region and present tourism to people outside the region. Connecting five different cultures and languages within Europe in this manner is an important tool of international communication and is essential for marketing the tourist potential of the region.
You are kindly invited to have a look at and read the World Tourism Day 2011 Message.