First Vatican Message on Responsible Tourism

We must ?. do everything we can to transform discrimination,
xenophobia and intolerance into understanding and mutual acceptance, through
the roads of respect, education and open, constructive and binding dialogue?.

From this perspective, tourism is ? ?an occasion for
dialogue and listening, inasmuch as it puts people in contact with other ways
of living, other religions, other ways of seeing the world and its history. It
is likewise an invitation not to withdraw into one’s own culture, but to be
open and face different ways of thinking and living. It should not be
surprising, therefore, that extremist sectors and terrorist groups of a
fundamentalist nature indicate tourism as a danger and an objective to destroy.
Mutual knowledge ? let us ardently hope ? will help in building a more just,
supportive and fraternal society?.

??  it is above all
tourism understood as a physical mobility, that underlines natural, ecological,
social, cultural, patrimonial and religious diversity. It also allows us to
discover the work done together, cooperation among peoples, unity among human
beings in the magnificent and disturbing diversity of its achievements?.

?All this requires an effort, both on the part of the visitors and of the local
residents who welcome, to assume an attitude of openness, respect, nearness,
trust in such a way that, motivated by their desire to meet others, respecting
their personal, cultural and religious diversity, they will be open to dialogue
and understanding?.

www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=301399