World Tourism Day 27 September| Investing in People, Planet, and Prosperity

  Tourism and green investment

World Tourism Day is celebrated every year on September 27. The day was established by the United Nations World Tourism Organization in 1980 to raise awareness of tourism’s role in the world.

UNWTO has identified investments as one of the key priorities for tourism’s recovery and future growth and development. For World Tourism Day 2023, UNWTO highlights the need for more and better-targeted investments for people, for planet and for prosperity. Now is the time for new and innovative solutions, not just traditional investments that promote and underpin economic growth and productivity.

World Tourism Day 2023 will be a call to action to the international community, governments, multilateral financial institutions, development partners and private sector investors to unite around a new tourism investment strategy.

The overall disruption in the tourism sector brought about by COVID-19, provides an opportunity to redefine and recalibrate the direction and narratives of tourism investments for a more sustainable future for the People, the Planet, and prosperity.  

An excursion to Angola Handicraft Square

The Craft Market is the largest square in Angola where pieces that represent the national culture and a little of the history of Africa are sold, it is located in the south of Luanda, the square has been operational for over 30 years.

What to find on the market

In the Craft Market you can find the following:

- Musical instruments: reco-reco, the batoque, the marimba and the quissanje;

- Baskets made of straw;

- Clothing and jewelry;

- Masks, Maps and other Statues made from tree trunks;

- Hand-painted pictures, there are also pictures on the market that are - made only with sand, that is, made with sand instead of a brush and paint.

Meet the black trunk used to make a statue

The statues in the Craft Market are made of brown, white and black wood trunks. The trunk of black wood is a rare wood that only exists in Angola and is used to carve the works, this black wood is born in the middle of a trunk of brown wood.

In the Artesanato Market you will find the history of the Angolan people who are divided by tribes, in Angola you will find 3 ethnic groups, first we have the sheep, most of the population belongs to this ethnic group, secondly we have the kicongos, in third we have the bacon which is represented by the smallest number of the population.

Statue of the thinker

This World Tourism Day 2023, the UNWTO,  under the theme “Tourism and green investment” highlights the need for more and better-targeted investments for the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN roadmap for a better world by 2030. Now is the time for new and innovative solutions, not just traditional investments that promote and underpin economic growth and productivity.

Goal 9 seeks to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. Economic growth, social development and climate action are heavily dependent on investments in infrastructure, sustainable industrial development and technological progress.

Luanda turns 447 years old

The city of Luanda completed on Wednesday [25.01.2023] its 447th anniversary.

Located on the west coast of Africa, Luanda is the capital of Angola and was founded on January 25, 1576, by the Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais, under the name of “São Paulo de Asunción De Loanda”.

One year after its foundation, Paulo Dias de Novais laid the stone for the construction of the church dedicated to São Sebastião, in the place where today is the Central Museum of the Armed Forces. Three decades later, with the increase in the European population and the consequent increase in buildings, the village becomes a city.

After the Independence of Angola, in 1975, the Municipality of Luanda was extinguished, dividing the territory of the province, first, in three municipalities and, later, in nine: Cazenga, Ingombota, Kilamba Kiaxi, Maianga, Rangel, Sambizanga, Samba , Viana and Cacuaco.

With millions of inhabitants, the city of Luanda, whose name comes from Axiluandas,” the men of the sea " native to Cape Island, is the main financial, commercial, economic and industrial center of Angola. Its inhabitants are mostly members of the ambundos, congos and ovimbundos ethnic groups, with relevant fractions of all Angolan ethnic origins. There is also a population of European origin, consisting mainly of Portuguese.

Luanda has as its visit cards the Bay of Luanda, the old Marginal Avenue or Avenida 4 de Fevereiro, where imposing works of architecture are implanted, such as the building of the National Bank of Angola, which still maintains the coat of arms of Portugal on the facade. 

The colonial historical buildings, such as the Provincial government, the Museums of the Armed Forces, Anthropology, currency, Natural History and slavery, where you can see instruments of coercion and immobilization used against slaves are, among others, places that prove to be authentic postcards.

After more than four centuries of existence, Luanda continues, among other aspects, to struggle with anarchic constructions, acts of vandalism of public and private property. Still, Luanda continues to be loved by all!

   Luanda the most expensive city in the world

In 2015, Luanda was rated to be the most expensive city in the world by several surveys. This has been argued to be a subjective view, based on one side of the city: that of expats and the rich.

In reality, Luanda has different economic streams, one for locals that is reasonable and comprised of road side restaurants, markets, vendors, hawkers and bootleggers, and another one based on restaurants, hotels, supermarkets with exorbitant pricing for the most simple commodities.

Luanda has long been one of the most exciting African music cities, spearheading and originating movements and sounds such as kuduro, semba, kizomba and most recently, along with South Africa, afrohouse. With it's economic boom, due to oil finds, and the subsequent crash, the force of the music scene has not subsided one bit.

Did you know?

• Tourism employs one in every ten people on Earth.
• Tourism in rural areas can particularly benefit traditionally disadvantaged groups such as women - who make up 54% of the workforce in the tourism sector compared to 39% for the whole economy - youth and Indigenous people.
• In emerging destinations, 50% of young people are unable to work in tourism due to a lack of opportunity, resources, or access to academic training.
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