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facilitation
The concept of facilitation has grown from its
narrow limits of frontier formalities and customs
procedures, to denote a free and safe movement of
tourists. Before 1914, tourists did not have to
carry elaborate passports or obtain visas to go from
one country to another. During the First World
War, restrictions on travel were imposed as a
wartime measure. However, travel became relatively
free of restrictions in interwar years.
After the Second World War, freedom to travel
was given a prominent place in the activities of the
United Nations and its specialised organs and
tourism organisations. Early in the 1950s the
United Nations adopted the following instruments
to facilitate travel: a convention concerning
customs facilities for tourism and a protocol
regarding the importation of publicity documents
and materials; a customs convention on the
temporary importation of private road vehicles
�June 1954); a customs convention on the temporary
importation for private use of aircrafts and
pleasure boats �May 1956); and sn international
convention on customs facilities applicable to
tourists adopted by the Customs Cooperation
Council and amended in 1986 to raise the
aggregate value of goods of a non-commercial
nature imported free of duty by non-resident
travellers and returning residents. The United
Nations Conference on International Travel and
Tourism, held in Rome in 1963, made detailed
recommendations with regard to travel facilitation.
The UN declared 1967 as the International
Tourism Year, and many facilitation measures for
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travel were made permanent by several states
thereafter.
During the 1980s a number of world instruments
for the facilitation of travel, visits and stays
were formulated by the World Tourism Organization
�WTO) and were endorsed by the UN.
The Manila Declaration on World Tourism in
1980 invited states to consider the significance of
abolishing visa requirements and removal of all
restrictions detrimental to tourism. The WTO
formulated the tourist Bill of Rights and Tourism
Code adopted by the United Nations on 19
December 1980. The Hague declaration on
tourism was adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary
Conference convened in April 1989.
The WTO facilitation and tourism safety
committees concluded a number of basic documents
in the following fields: security and
protection of tourists, tourism staff and operators
of facilities and host countries; tourist insurance for
individuals and establishments; consumer protection
measures offering a draft provisions for
creating an ombudsman for tourists; drug abuse
and illicit trafficking control in tourism sector;
protecting and facilitating travel of handicapped
people; and health standards for tourists and
sanitation requirements for facilities. The substance
of these instruments and standards have
been put into effect by different states and
implemented on s bilateral and multilateral basis.
The General Agreement on Trade in Services
�GATS), signed by 125 states in 1994, sets in place
a system that will lead to the gradual elimination of
barriers to tourism growth. More trade in both
goods and services means more movement of