Ambassadors to Spain from the region of Europe gathered last Friday for a high-level meeting with the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The virtual meeting with Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili focused on the timely and responsible restart of tourism across the continent.

Ambassadors act as a bridge between the Secretariat of the United Nations specialized agency in Madrid and their home countries. Mr Pololikashvili - who himself served as Ambassador of Georgia to Spain before taking up the leadership of UNWTO - highlighted the important role that diplomats must play in coordinating efforts to lift restrictions on travel and to restore confidence in international tourism.

High on the agenda was tourism's potential for helping rural communities recover from the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, echoing the year-long focus of UNWTO on tourism for rural development, which was also the theme of World Tourism Day 2020. The Ambassadors were also informed of UNWTO's leading role in guiding tourism's restart, including through the planned creation of an International Code for the Protection of Tourists.

The meeting counted on the participation of representatives from 36 of UNWTO's European Member States. In addition, three other European countries who are not UNWTO members joined the meeting, reflecting the cross-cutting relevance of tourism for overall economic recovery.

"Strong diplomatic relations will enable safe and seamless travel for tourists, ensuring our sector and the many benefits it offers will return as soon as possible", said Mr Pololikashvili when stressing the importance of maintaining close relations with Member States.

A total 34 Heads of Diplomatic Missions took part in the virtual high-level meeting, with interventions from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, and Uzbekistan.

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.

UN Tourism Communications Department
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UN Tourism