We want Catalonia to be a better place to live and a better destination to visit. It is practically impossible to think about our country without taking into account the tourism sector: it represents 12% of GDP and 14% of employment. This is why we must ensure that we provide answers to the new global challenges facing this powerful economic sector. And this path is what we have begun to do with the National Commitment for Responsible Tourism, a transversal agreement in which unions, employers, environmental organizations or neighborhood federations, among many other actors, have set a road map on where to transit this key sector.
From the Government of the Generalitat, we have a clearly transformative vocation: we work to manage the present effectively and efficiently, but also to promote those structural changes that we believe the country needs. And now is the time to transform the tourism sector, to equip ourselves with a new shared model, more ethical, innovative and responsible.
Because the 20th century had different parameters than today. We are an international reference tourist power in many aspects. We have built some very important structures that have highlighted who we are and what we represent. But the 21st century demands more from us.
We are in a context of global and accelerated changes in all areas. The meaning of these changes, however, is to be decided. We can direct them to the collective benefit, to the answer to the major challenges we face. In the case of tourism, this is what we are starting to do with the Commitment: moving towards a more sustainable model from an environmental, social, economic and innovative point of view. Towards a more balanced and diversified model in terms of territory, time and typology.
And this milestone can only be reached with dialogue and an outstretched hand, reconciling different legitimate interests for the benefit of the country. The National Commitment to Responsible Tourism is the result of a process of collective participation. For 13 months, a plurality of very diverse entities have carried out an exercise in generosity to put aside their differences and look for a common denominator to define the kind of responsible tourism we want.
More than 700 people have participated in this process of collective transformation, which has resulted in an agreement that already has 111 accessions from organizations of all types, and which is open to adding new ones. There is no place in the world that has an agreement of these characteristics, despite the fact that some destinations bet and reflect on the visitor economy, responsible tourism and environmental sustainability.
To achieve this transformation that the agreement seeks, we have a committed ecosystem, the assets and the necessary consensus. That allows us to guarantee a model of responsible tourism with the environment, with the environment, with decent work, with society and with the planet. An attractive tourism for the person who visits the country, but at the same time, positive for the territory as a whole, beneficial for Catalans and a generator of prosperity.
But nothing ends with the presentation of the National Commitment for Responsible Tourism. Now that we know where we want to go, it is up to us to work on an operational plan that makes it possible to achieve what we have agreed upon in this agreement.
We count on the entities and companies in the sector to achieve this together. Because Catalonia is a tourist country, which has a strong and resilient industry to be part of the solution to the great challenges we face.
