World Tourism Organization

UNWTO headquarters, Madrid

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.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UNWTO 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill, and tourism is the worst affected of all major economic sectors. Against a backdrop of heightened uncertainty, up-to-date and reliable information is more important than ever, both for tourists and for the tourism sector. UNWTO´s priorities shifted towards recovery of tourism increasing its efforts:

-         By cooperating closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), the lead UN agency for the management of this outbreak;

-         by ensuring with WHO that health measures are implemented in ways that minimize unnecessary impact on international travel and trade;

-         by standing in solidarity with affected countries; and

-         by emphasizing tourism’s proven resilience and by standing ready to support recovery.

UNWTO Tourism Regions

World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has long considered the public and private sector to be integral partners in fulfilling its general mandate of promoting sustainable development in tourism. In addition, UNWTO is the only agency of the United Nations that has private sector members that participate in the governance structure. We believe that the public and private sectors share many common objectives which, in today´s globalized world, can be more effectively tackled through collaboration and the establishment of partnerships.

UNWTO members have endorsed the Management Vision and Priorities of the Secretary-General which seeks to position tourism as a policy priority, lead in knowledge creation, enhance the Organization’s capacity through building new and stronger partnerships, and offer better value for existing Members while also expanding membership.

“It is absolutely crucial to work towards the enhancement of a new generation of partnerships, partnerships not only with governments, not only with civil society and academia but equally partnerships with the business community in the context of the perspective of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, creating the conditions for an inclusive and sustainable development – the best way to prevent crises and conflicts in today’s world”. António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General

To realize the Management Vision, UNWTO’s work is based around five distinct pillars:

1. making tourism smarter through celebrating innovation and leading the digital transformation of the sector;
2. making tourism more competitive at every level through promoting investment and promoting entrepreneurship;
3. creating more and better jobs and providing relevant training;
4. building resilience and promoting safe and seamless travel; and
5. harnessing tourism’s unique potential to protect cultural and natural heritage and to support communities both economically and socially.

Membership of the UNWTO includes 158[3] states,[4] six territories (Flemish Community (1997), Puerto Rico (2002), Aruba (1987), Hong Kong (1999), Macau (1981), Madeira (1995)),[5] and two permanent observers (Holy See (1979), Palestine (1999)). Seventeen state members have withdrawn from the organization for different periods in the past: Australia (citing poor value for money), Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada (Canada withdrew from the World Tourism Organization when it appointed Robert Mugabe as a leader in 2013), Costa Rica, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Panama, Philippines, Qatar, Thailand, United Kingdom and Puerto Rico (as an associate member). The Netherlands Antilles was an associate member before its dissolution.

Non-members are: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Comoros, Denmark, Dominica, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Guyana, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Tonga, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, United States.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) rejoined the organization in May 2013, 26 years after having left UNWTO.[6]

Additionally, and uniquely for a United Nations specialized agency, UNWTO has over 500 affiliate members, representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities, non-governmental entities with specialised interests in tourism, and commercial and non-commercial bodies and associations with activities related to the aims of UNWTO or falling within its competence.

Key tourism statistics

• UNWTO Annual Report
• UNWTO Declarations
• UNWTO Fact Sheets
• UNWTO World Tourism Barometer
• Knowledge Network Issues Paper Series

Visa Openness Report

UNWTO 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.[16]

The Organization's latest UNWTO 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.[17] 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 UNWTO, based on information from national official institutions):[18]

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

• World Tourism Day

• 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to UNWTO.

• Official website
• UNWTO eLibrary
• UNWTO Themis Foundation