The Global Tourism Crisis Committee has met for the last time in 2020, to continue advancing coordination and cooperation among all parts of the sector. The virtual meeting of the Committee, established by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) at the start of the pandemic, was hosted by Portugal ahead of its Presidency of the Council of the European Union, beginning in January. It was accompanied by in-person meetings of the highest political level between the UNWTO leadership, Prime Minister António Costa and the Ministers Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva.

This seventh meeting was focused on ensuring efforts to restart tourism are coordinated and harmonized in terms of cross border travel both pre and post-vaccine. UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili called for more explicit affirmation from governments and international organizations that safe travel is possible and so tourism can restart responsibly. The meeting began with a message of support from the very highest level of the European Institutions. Margaritis Schinas Vice President of the European Commission, applauded the coordinated approach to addressing the key challenges facing tourism's restart while stressing the importance of the sector to Europe's economies and the steps already taken to support businesses and jobs, including through unprecedented levels of financial assistance.

Looking beyond vaccines

Making contributions to the meeting were Harry Theoharis, Minister of Tourism for Greece and Chair of the Committee's Technical Group, created in October to advance harmonization of protocols. Alongside this, Nedret Emiroglu, Director, Country Readiness Strengthening, Emergency Preparedness, at the World Health Organization (WHO) outlined the necessary steps for harmonized health and safety protocols for international tourism.

As vaccinations for the COVID-19 virus begin to be administered, the Committee also engaged in a special session on post-vaccine cross-border travel. Committee members stressed that, while recent breakthroughs serve to boost confidence, the tourism sector cannot wait for vaccinations to become a widespread reality.

Portugal signals strong support for UNWTO

Portugal hosted the meeting of the Global Tourism Crisis Committee just weeks before it is scheduled to assume the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Secretary-General Pololikashvili received assurances of the highest level during a meeting with António Costa, Prime Minister of the Portuguese Republic. The UNWTO leadership thanked the Prime Minister for his government's strong and ongoing support for tourism and for recognizing the important role the sector can play in the country's social and economic development. This was followed by a meeting between the Secretary-General and Augusto Santos Silva, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Portugal.

The country's strong support of UNWTO's mission and its commitment to tourism as a driver of development and growth was reaffirmed by Rita Marques, Secretary of State for Tourism. Furthermore, the visit also encompassed the whole spectrum of key priorities - from driving coordination to achieving high-level political support for the sector. Innovation, recognized for its potential to advance recovery and build a more sustainable future for tourism, was also at the fore as the UNWTO delegation met with Portugal's Secretary of State for the Digital Transformation, André de Aragão Azevedo to discuss start-ups, innovation and their vital place in the future of Portuguese tourism.

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.

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