Source: UN Tourism

The city of San Sebastian, Spain hosted the 108th meeting of the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) from 23-25 May. During the meeting, Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili obtained the support of this key governing body for the priorities that will set up the work of the organization for the coming years. Likewise, the Council supported the new structure of the UNWTO, its renewed institutional image and the designated management team for the implementation of the agreed programme of work.

Under Secretary-General Pololikashvili, who took office in January 2018, UNWTO will focus on five pillars for the period 2018-2019: innovation and the digital transformation; investments and entrepreneurship; education and employment; safe, secure and seamless travel; and social, cultural and environmental sustainability.

In order to address new tourism challenges and trends and improve the business environment for the sector, the Organization will pay special attention to scaling up innovation and digitalization in the sector. This will lead to the creation of new job and business opportunities, an increase of investments in tourism, and enhanced competitiveness and sustainability for the sector.

The Secretary-General also presented the Organization's new leadership structure, put in place to increase efficiency in achieving UNWTO's goals of adding value to members, increasing membership and serving the tourism sector as a whole.

"This is a time of renewal for our organization. Listening closely to the opinions and needs of all our members and partners is key", Pololikashvili stated during the opening ceremony.

The Minister of Energy, Tourism and the Digital Agenda of Spain, Álvaro Nadal, praised the renewed impetus of the UNWTO under the leadership of Zurab Pololikashvili and highlighted tourism as "one of the most relevant international sectors, not only as an economic activity, but as an extraordinary vehicle for us to understand and get to know each other, something that only tourism can achieve".

The Minister of Tourism of Argentina and President of the Executive Council, Gustavo Santos, affirmed that "we need to position tourism politically as a fundamental activity of the economy".

The 109th, 110th and 111th sessions of the UNWTO Executive Council will take place in Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Russia, respectively.

UNWTO Executive Council:

The Executive Council represents the Organization's governing body, responsible for ensuring the ‎Organization's compliance with its programme of work. The Executive Council meets at least twice a year and is ‎composed by 33 members elected by the General Assembly in a ratio of one for every ‎five Full Members. As host country of UNWTO's Headquarters, Spain has a permanent ‎seat on the Council. Representatives of the Associate Members and Affiliate ‎Members participate in Executive Council meetings as observers.

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About UN Tourism

The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

Our Priorities

Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.

Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.

Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UN Tourism Members' competitiveness through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.

Advancing tourism's contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.

Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.

Our Structure

Members: An intergovernmental organization, UN Tourism has 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.

Organs: The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization. The Executive Council take all measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.

Secretariat: UN Tourism headquarters are based in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in over 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East serve as the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents UN Tourism's 500 plus Affiliate members.

Marcelo Risi
UNWTO Communications & Publications Programme
(+34) 91 567 81 60
UN Tourism