TOURISM AS A TEACHING TOOL FOR PEACE

Whenever I have traveled with my children I have been able to see how the cultural differences awakened their curiosity, fed their minds and made them ask questions about the destinations and their people.

And also, I always thought that traveling was a kind of extracurricular activity that should be taught in all schools. Through traveling you learn about art, architecture, nature, geography, and above all culture, in addition to a long list of subjects that go hand in hand with formal education. However, above all, I would emphasize that the most important thing is that it teaches you to respect, to know other ways of understanding the world and to accept the environment in which you find yourself, inviting you to a kind of fusion with your own personality.

This year's WORLD TOURISM DAY has as its theme “Tourism and Peace” and really this aspect of tourism as an educational tool is closely linked to everything that contributes to bringing peace between the different cultures of the world.

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Tourism, as a tool for social integration, can be understood as an ongoing educational process that allows us to learn, broaden horizons and understand other ways of life, helping us to develop different skills that are useful for our evolution as people in an increasingly diverse society.

Part of this education involves the understanding of new environments that invite the development of more responsible and committed capacities, of pure respect and that invite coexistence between different parties for the common good. Some of us develop our welfare environment thanks to the increased income generated by tourism and the others, as visitors, enjoy new and revitalizing experiences that allow us to discover each destination, connecting with the people who live there in a genuine way, drawing from their own roots, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

And so, in the end, we all win, because the collective learning from cultural exchange generates a wealth for everyone over and above the individual.

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Tourism allows us to bridge the gaps between the different ways of seeing the world and educates us to understand that some gaps are due more to form than to substance, because in the end we all live together on the same planet.

And referring to the 4 pillars of education that the French politician Jacques Delors wrote for UNESCO in 1966 in his report “Learning: The Treasure Within”, which even today serves as a reference for understanding the basic knowledge that a human being should have for the personal progress of a country and the world, we see how tourism can act as a catalyst for peace by facilitating the possibility of:

1. LEARNING TO KNOW:?understood as the capabilities we all have to acquire different knowledge, which allow us to understand the world around us.
2. LEARNING TO DO:?refers to being able to put all our learning into practice, as well as to the acquisition of competencies to cope with various life situations.
3. LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER, LEARNING TO LIVE WITH OTHERS: this is perhaps one of the most difficult pillars to achieve, but it identifies the importance of community engagement in society, as well as the benefits of working together and in collaboration with others.
4. LEARNING TO BE:? developing ourselves integrally at the individual level, in order to be able to contribute to the overall development of society.

?And this is exactly how tourism serves each of the pillars of education, serving as a social catalyst, managing to show, teach, connect and educate in the commitment to work together for peace.

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