World tourism ministers pledge to coordinate to restart tourism, Uzbekistan to host 25th GA
Travel Biz News —
The 24th Session of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) concluded with tourism ministers pledging to coordinate with their respective governments to restart tourism.
Representatives of more than 135 countries discussed the way forward to get tourism moving in a safe manner and agreed to examine plans to create a new taskforce to ‘Redesign Tourism for the Future’ in the assembly held in Madrid from 30 November to 3 December.
Innovation, youth empowerment and tourism and rural development took centre stage as Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez Pérez-Castejón joined UNWTO General Assembly in Madrid.
Similarly, Bali in Indonesia was confirmed as host for World Tourism Day 2022, to be held around the timely theme of ‘Rethinking Tourism’, while the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia confirmed as the host country for World Tourism Day 2023, to be held around the year of ‘Tourism for Green Investments’.
The General Assembly also fulfilled its obligation with regards to elections, with member states supporting nominations for new members to serve on the World Committee on Tourism Ethics, according to a statement issued by the organization.
Furthermore, 17 countries were confirmed to sit on the UNWTO Executive Council from 2021 to 2025, with Puerto Rico to serve as the representative of Affiliate Members.
The General Assembly also celebrated destinations that are already leading the way in making tourism a pillar of rural development and opportunity. From hundreds of entries, 44 villages from 32 countries were named as Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO.
The 25th UNWTO General Assembly will be held in the Uzbekistan city of Samarkand in 2023.
4 December 2021 Photo : UNWTO
