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UN Tourism

UN Tourism (UNWTO until 2023) 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[2] and a Regional Office for the Middle East in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Not to be confused with World Trade Organization.

Abbreviation

UN Tourism

1 November 1975 (1975-11-01)

Active

Madrid, Spain

160 Member States[1]

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.[3]


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: 1 out of 10 jobs worldwide depended on tourism and international tourist arrivals reached 1.5 billion in 2019. 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.


From its inception in 1975 until 2023, UN Tourism was called the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).[4]

UNWTO Annual Report

UN Tourism World Tourism Barometer

UNWTO Declarations

Knowledge Network Issues Paper Series

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.

. UNWTO Press and Communications. 1 December 2005. Retrieved 4 March 2008.

"World Tourism Organization changes its abbreviation to UNWTO"

Official website

UNWTO eLibrary

UNWTO Themis Foundation