student walking on Blanchardstown Campus

Faculty News | TU Dublin celebrates World Tourism Day, 27 September 2023

TU Dublin celebrates World Tourism Day, 27 September 2023

Published: 25 Sep, 2023

Since 1980, September 27 has been designated World Tourism Day by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

The day aims to foster awareness among the international community of the importance of tourism and of its social, cultural, political and economic value. It provides an opportunity for governments, civil society, the public and private sectors, schools and universities, and citizens to make World Tourism Day a springboard for awareness-raising actions.  The timing of World Tourism Day is particularly appropriate as it comes at the end of the high season in the northern hemisphere and the beginning of the season in the southern hemisphere.

This year, the UNWTO highlights the need for more and better-targeted investments for People, for Planet and for Prosperity; to enable tourism to deliver on its massive potential to provide opportunities for people by investing in education & skills, to accelerate climate action and greater sustainability for the planet, and to deliver inclusive prosperity around the pillars of innovation and entrepreneurship.

To celebrate World Tourism Day 2023, the School of Tourism & Hospitality Management has reached across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities and partnered with the Promotion Unit in South Dublin County Council, to screen the IFTA award-winning documentary ‘Nothing to Declare’.

The documentary tells the story of two Irish boys, aged 10 and 13, on a stowaway adventure of a lifetime, from Dublin to New York, in the summer of 1985. Keith Byrne and Noel Murray recount their childhood journey for the first time on screen, in this nostalgic transatlantic adventure.

The screening will take place at 3pm on September 27th, at Red Rua Performance Space, Blessington Road, Tallaght. Staff, students, industry and local representatives are invited.

Background: 'Nothing to Declare' is directed by Garret Daly, a TU Dublin lecturer who works on both the Advertising degree and Media Production and Digital Arts programmes at the Tallaght campus. His background includes films, documentaries and radio production. Nothing to Declare debuted at the Galway Film Fleadh, where it won the Academy Award-Oscar qualifying Best Short Documentary Award. The international premiere was held at DOC NYC, where it was also selected for the prestigious shortlist shorts showcase and acquired by The New Yorker. Since then, the film has won over 15 international awards, including an Irish Film and Television Academy Award in 2022.