Source: UN Tourism
Source: UN Tourism
Source: UN Tourism
Source: UN Tourism

On World Tourism Day 2023, leaders from every global region have united around a shared determination to invest in the sector's growth and transformation. Held around the theme of "Tourism and Green Investments," the celebrations of the Global Day of Observation have been the biggest and most impactful on record.

Riyadh Welcomes the World

Hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the official celebrations in Riyadh brought together more than 50 Ministers of Tourism alongside hundreds of high-level delegates from both the public and private sectors. They were joined by UNWTO's Member States and other tourism stakeholders around the world celebrating in their own countries. Welcoming them all, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili and Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia Ahmed Al Khateeb, emphasized the need for the whole of the sector to step up investments that deliver for People, Planet and for Prosperity.

Opening the celebrations, His Excellency Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb reaffirmed the Kingdom's commitment to tourism development and strong support of UNWTO's mission. He said: It is a privilege and honour to host World Tourism Day in Riyadh. Let's celebrate our achievements in coming back strongly from the pandemic. But let's also travel with confidence into the future. A future where large countries and smaller countries can work together to achieve amazing things. And let's all move in harmony towards a new horizon for global tourism.

UNWTO Secretary-General Pololikashvili said: Tourism must lead the way in accelerating our shift to greater resilience and sustainability. For this, we need more investment, as well as the right kind of investment. That is the central message of this year's World Tourism Day, a message that is being amplified from the official hosts of the celebrations, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and echoed around the world by our Members everywhere.

Tourism Investments in the Spotlight

Exploring the meaning behind Tourism and Green Investments, the official World Tourism Day celebrations featured a series of expert panels, each focusing one key priority for the sector right now. These included: Investing in people, through education and jobs; Investing in destinations, including new destinations and products to reduce overcrowding and diversify benefits; investing in innovation and entrepreneurship, and Investing in green transformation.

The expert-led discussions, which featured contributions from Ministers of Tourism as well as from business and finance leaders, were complemented by strong actions as UNWTO announced several key initiatives:

  • UNWTO Secretary-General Pololikashvili and Saudi Minister of Tourism Al Khateeb jointly announced plans for a new Riyadh School for Tourism and Hospitality. The School will offer eight levels of educational programmes, ranging from certificates through to courses at the Bachelors and Master's degree level, with a clear focus on bridging the current skills gaps in tourism.
  • UNWTO announced the winners of its inaugural Women in Tech Start-Up Competition. The winning women-led enterprises were selected for the relevance of their work to tourism for development and for their potential to scale up. All of them will benefit from support and mentorship from UNWTO's innovation network.

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.

UN Tourism Communications Department
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UN Tourism