The United Nations General Assembly designated 2017 the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. In line with the global designation, Zimbabwe launched last week, the Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development under the theme, “Travel, Enjoy and Respect”. It is my sincere hope that this launch, albeit done mid-year, should be used as a way of bringing all stakeholders to exchange ideas to foster sound partnership to advance tourism for sustainable development and poverty eradication in Zimbabwe.

True, neither the pope, let alone Argentina, have the political, military or financial power to enforce the UNGA-approved principles. But they can exercise their “soft power,” which is the ability of a country — or, in this case, the Vatican — to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion, be it (again, in this case) financial or political. In fact, soft power, a given for important states, is a must for those nations lacking such attributes.