International Coalition of Tourism Partners: A salute to the USA on 9/11

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The International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP), a global tourism organization with members in 134 countries, took a lead today when speaking to the world about September 11, 2001.

The International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP), a global tourism organization with members in 134 countries, took a lead today when speaking to the world about September 11, 2001.

Fifteen years ago, the worst terror attack on the United States of America was also an attack on aviation and the global travel and tourism industry worldwide.

It had given the United States an image of a less welcoming and walled-in country, but it also brought the largest industry in the world together.

The President of ICTP – a Hawaii, Brussels, Seychelles, and Bali-based organization – is Professor Geoffrey Lipman, a celebrity in the travel and tourism world.


Mr. Lipman was also the first President of WTTC, the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council, representing the world’s top 100 private travel companies. He was the Assistant Secretary General of UNWTO, the United Nations World Tourism Organization, representing governments and ministries around the world.

Mr. Lipman was a UNDP Administrator, and is member of the EU High Level Groups on Aviation Liberalization and on Tourism and Employment. He is also the founder of SUN.

GLIPM | eTurboNews | eTN
Prof. Geoffrey Lipman, president ICTP

On behalf of ICTP, Professor Lipman today, September 11, 2016, issued this statement calling it a “Salute to the USA.”

“I am not an American. But on that frightful, horrendous day 15 years ago, I became one mentally, psychologically, and emotionally, as we all watched the carnage that was created by crazy people, doing crazy things in crazy unimaginable ways.

“Like the rest of the world, I mourned with my American friends for lives senselessly lost; families plunged into the depths of despair; and all the horror, shock, and pain that ensued.

“And like the rest of the world, I got the first glimpse of the immense power of multimedia as the pictures reverberated endlessly of machines that I had only ever associated with the good things about travel, turned into weapons of mass destruction.

“And like the rest of the world, I wondered about the impact on the lives, economy, and mindset of a city and country that I had broadly associated mostly with the triumph of good ideas, good politics, and good futures over bad.

“15 years later, I see that in the depths of despair and pain came the greatest moments and the seeds of new beginnings โ€“ where shattered lives were pieced together, businesses reopened, buildings replaced, and hope became the driver of a new solidarity.

“Yes, there were voices for lock down and a new isolationism then: for fear xenophobia and an uglier walled-in America. But they were drowned in the outpour of caring and kindness from across the country and around the world.

“And that spirit has prevailed through the new challenges that have emerged since 9/11 โ€“ exclusion, pandemics, migration, and most significantly, climate change โ€“ a truly global existential reality, a thoughtful, understanding, inclusionary spirit that has been so decently and demonstrably led by a first African American family in the White House, an idea that could hardly be imagined 15 years ago.

“America is a strong country. New York is a resilient city, and good American ideas about caring, sharing, and solidarity will prevail over bad ones that are raising their heads in the frenzy of a 24/7 media-fueled reality show called an election.

“As President Obama rightly said, life is about the ‘Audacity of Hope’ and that is an ideal, well worth remembering 15 years after the first plane crashed into the Twin Towers.”

ICTP is all about green growth + quality = business in tourism. Members include tourism boards, associations, and stakeholders from all sectors of the travel industry, as well as journalists and universities.



For more information on the International Coalition of Tourism Partners, known as ICTP, and how to join this organization, visit www.ictp.travel

There is no cost to become a member.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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