UN Tourism

Specialised agency of the United Nations

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UN Tourism[1]

UN Tourism headquarters, Madrid, Spain

Abbreviation| UN Tourism
Formation| 1 November 1975 (49 years ago) (1975-11-01)
Type| United Nations specialized agency
Legal status| Active
Headquarters| Madrid, Spain
Membership| 160 Member States[2]

Secretary-General

| Zurab Pololikashvili

Parent organization

| United Nations
Employees| 89 (2023[3])
Website| www.unwto.org
Politics portal

The United Nations World Tourism Organization or UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which promotes responsible, sustainable and universally-accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. Other offices include: a Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific in Nara, Japan[4] and a Regional Office for the Middle East in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

UN Tourism serves as a global forum for tourism policy and a source of tourism research and knowledge. It encourages tourism competitiveness, innovation, education, investments and digital transformation. The organization also focusses on ethics, culture and social responsibility related to tourism, provides technical cooperation and includes a UN Tourism Academy and statistics work.[5]

The six official languages of UN Tourism are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism stood at an all-time high with 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals in 2019, according to the organization's World Tourism Barometer. Against a backdrop of heightened uncertainty, UN Tourism conveyed the Global Tourism Crisis Committee to guide the tourism sector as it faced up to the COVID-19 challenge. A 2021 panel data study using UNWTO datasets showed that the global tourism sector lost approximately 604.8 billion USD under the best-case COVID-19 scenario and over 1.9 trillion USD in the worst-case scenario, underscoring the need for international policy coordination through organizations like the UNWTO. [6] Following a massive 72% drop in international arrivals in 2020 due to the pandemic, travel gradually recovered and attained pre-pandemic levels in 2024 [7] .

From its inception in 1975 until 2023, the UN World Tourism Organization was abbreviated as UNWTO.[8]

## Members

[edit]

UNWTO Tourism Regions

UN Tourism has 160 Member States,[9][10][11] six associate members (Aruba, Flanders, Hong Kong, Macao, Madeira and Puerto Rico),[12] and two observers (Holy See (1979), Palestine (1999)).

Nonmembers are: Australia, Belgium, Belize, Canada, Denmark, Dominica, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Guyana, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Tonga, Tuvalu, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Seventeen state members have withdrawn from the organization for different periods in the past including Australia (citing poor value for money), Bahamas (later rejoined), Bahrain (rejoined in 2001), Belgium, Canada (Canada withdrew from the World Tourism Organization when it appointed Robert Mugabe as a leader in 2013), Costa Rica (rejoined in 1995), El Salvador (rejoined in 1993), Grenada, Honduras (rejoined in 2001), Kuwait (rejoined in 2003), Latvia, Malaysia (rejoined in 1991), Myanmar (rejoined in 2012), Panama (rejoined in 1996), Philippines (rejoined in 1991), Qatar (rejoined in 2002), Thailand (rejoined in 1996), United Kingdom and Puerto Rico (as an associate member).[citation needed] The Netherlands Antilles was an associate member before its dissolution.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) rejoined the organization in May 2013, 26 years after having left UN Tourism.[13]

Additionally, UN Tourism has over 500 affiliate members, including non-governmental entities with specialised interests in tourism, and commercial and non-commercial bodies and associations with activities related to the aims of UN Tourism or falling within its competence.

On 2 April 2022, Russia announced it would leave UN Tourism, and the organization subsequently voted the same day to suspend Russia in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[14]

## Secretaries-General

[edit]

Name  | Years of Tenure

|

Robert Lonati | 1975–1985
Willibald Pahr | 1986–1989
Antonio Enriquez Savignac | 1990–1996
Francesco Frangialli | 1997–2009
Taleb Rifai | 2010–2017
Zurab Pololikashvili[15] | 2018–

As the host country of UN Tourism's headquarters, Spain has a permanent seat on the Executive Council. Representatives of the associate members and affiliate members participate in Executive Council meetings as observers.[16]

## Publications

[edit]

* World Tourism Barometer (quarterly)
* International Tourism Highlights (annual)
* UNWTO Annual Report
* UNWTO Declarations
* Knowledge Network Issues Paper Series

## Tourism Data Dashboard

[edit]

UN Tourism releases its Tourism Data Dashboard which "provides statistics and insights on key indicators for inbound and outbound tourism at the global, regional and national levels. Data covers tourist arrivals, tourism share of exports and contribution to GDP, source markets, seasonality and accommodation (data on number of rooms, guest and nights)."[17]

### Visa Openness Report

[edit]

UN Tourism research concluded that, by improving visa processes and entry formalities, G20 economies could boost their international tourist numbers by 122 million, tourism exports by US$2016 billion and employment by 5 million.[18]

The Organization's latest UN Tourism Visa Openness Report, published in 2016, shows the highest ever percentage of international tourists not requiring a visa to travel - 39% compared with 23% in 2008.[19] The report concluded that the 30 countries whose citizens were least affected by visa restrictions in 2015 were (based on the data compiled by the UN Tourism, based on information from national official institutions):[20]

Least restricted citizens  Rank  | Country  | Mobility index (out of 215 with no visa weighted by 1, visa on arrival weighted by 0.7, eVisa by 0.5 and traditional visa weighted by 0)

|
|

1  |  Denmark,  Finland,  Germany,  Italy,  Luxembourg,  Singapore,  United Kingdom | 160
8  |  France,  Japan Netherlands,  South Korea,  Sweden,  United States | 159
14  |  Belgium,  Canada,  Ireland,  Norway,  Portugal,  Spain,  Switzerland | 158
21  |  Austria,  Greece,  Malta | 157
24  |  Czech Republic,  New Zealand | 156
26  |  Hungary,  Iceland,  Malaysia | 155
29  |  Australia,  Slovakia | 154

## Ambassadors

[edit]

### Sports

[edit]

* Didier Drogba - Football player
* Leo Messi - Football player
* Andrés Iniesta - Football players

Source:[4]

### Gastronomy and Wine

[edit]

* Gino Sorbillo - chef
* Ramon Freixa - chef

### Business Leaders

[edit]

* Michael Frenzel - Businessman
* Adam Goldstein - Businessman

### Arts and Culture

[edit]

* Giorgio Armani - clothing designer
* Plácido Domingo - Opera singer

## See also

[edit]

* World Tourism Day

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Staff writer (2024). "UN Tourism". UIA Global Civil Society Database. uia.org. Brussels, Belgium: Union of International Associations. Yearbook of International Organizations Online. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
2. ^ "Member States". www.unwto.org. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
3. ^ PERSONNEL BY ORGANIZATION | United Nations
4. ^ a b "UNWTO Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific". Retrieved 10 January 2024.
5. ^ "Home | UNWTO". www.unwto.org. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
6. ^ Škare, Marinko; Soriano, Domingo Riberio; Porada-Rochoń, Małgorzata (1 February 2021). "Impact of COVID-19 on the travel and tourism industry". Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 163: 120469. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120469. ISSN 0040-1625. PMC 9189715. PMID 35721368.
7. ^ "International tourism recovers pre-pandemic levels in 2024". UN Tourism. 21 January 2025. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
8. ^ "UNWTO Becomes "UN Tourism" to Mark A New Era for Global Sector". UN Tourism. 23 January 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
9. ^ "Who we are | World Tourism Organization UNWTO". Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
10. ^ "Member States". Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
11. ^ "Spanish Visa Experts". Retrieved 5 October 2023.
12. ^ territories or groups of territories not responsible for their external relations but whose membership is approved by the state assuming responsibility for their external relations.
13. ^ "The United Arab Emirates joins the World Tourism Organization". World Tourism Organization UNWTO. 8 May 2013. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018.
14. ^ Pons, Corina; Khalip, Andrei (27 April 2022). "UN tourism body chief says Russia quitting the organization". Regina Leader Post. Reuters. Archived from the original on 4 April 2024.
15. ^ "UNWTO Executive Council recommends Zurab Pololikashvili for Secretary-General for the period 2018-2021". World Tourism Organization UNWTO. 12 May 2017. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019.
16. ^ "Executive Council". World Tourism Organization UNWTO. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
17. ^ "The UN Tourism Data Dashboard". UNWTO. Archived from the original on 25 October 2023.
18. ^ The Impact of Visa Facilitation on Job Creation in the G20 Economies: Report prepared for the 4th T20 Ministers' Meeting, Mexico, 15–16 May 2012. UNWTO and WTTC. 2012. doi:10.18111/9789284414727. ISBN 9789284414727.
19. ^ Visa openness report 2015. 2016. doi:10.18111/9789284417384. ISBN 9789284417384.
20. ^ "Visa Openness Report 2016" (PDF). World Tourism Organization. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2016. Retrieved 17 January 2016.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Jafari, J. (1974). Creation of the intergovernmental world tourism organization. Annals of Tourism Research, 2, (5), 237–245.
* United Nations General Assembly. (1969). General assembly – twenty fourth session.
* United Nations World Tourism Organization. (2007). About UNWTO.
* World Tourism Organization. (2003). WTO news, 2003 (3). Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
* "World Tourism Organization changes its abbreviation to UNWTO". UNWTO Press and Communications. 1 December 2005. Retrieved 4 March 2008.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to UNWTO.

* Official website
* UNWTO eLibrary
* UNWTO Themis Foundation Archived 23 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine

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