Government leaders have joined the heads of major United Nations agencies, civil society and the travel industry in a call for the integration of tourism in development plans for countries like China.

The "Declaration on Tourism and the Millennium Development Goals" was endorsed Tuesday and will be presented to the full UN Summit this week.

The heads of UNICEF, UNCTAD, UNDP, ICAO, and the World Tourism Organization endorsed the declaration and will present the call to the summit session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Ann Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, said sustainable tourism development can protect children of the world from abuse and exploitation and urged others to endorse the declaration.

Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, said as more importance is attached to local technical skills and efficient services than to cheap labor, poorer countries "will harness their assets of natural beauty and cultural wealth for development gains."

Lelei LeLaulu of Counterpart International, representing civil society organizations at the high level "Roundtable on Harnessing Tourism for the Millennium Development Goals" at UNICEF headquarters, called for teaching tourism at the elementary school level to ensure the "best and brightest" can see careers in tourism.

Francesco Frangialli, Secretary General of the World Tourism Organisation, underscoring the size of the world’s largest industry, said last year 763 million trips were taken with tourists spending US$622 billion.

Developing countries received $177 billion in tourism receipts in 2004 which was the primary source of foreign exchange earnings in 46 of the 49 poorest nations which the UN calls the Least Developed Countries.

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