UN Tourism and ICCA Partner Around Sustainable Development of Meetings Industry
UN Tourism and the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA) have joined forces to promote sustainable development within the meeting industry.
The recent visit of an ICCA delegation to UN Tourism headquarters culminated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), symbolizing the deepening collaboration between the two entities. This partnership aims to enhance the business tourism industry's activity and impact, aligning with broader global sustainability goals. The MOU outlines various areas of cooperation, including raising awareness of business tourism's value, supporting mutual events, promoting education, fostering collaboration, amplifying visibility for entrepreneurs, showcasing best practices, and advocating for the industry's economic significance.
The partnership between UN Tourism and ICCA recognizes the growing economic importance of business events for our sector. ICCA has been a valued Affiliate Member of UN Tourism since 2004, and our collaboration has yielded several joint publications and initiatives focused on advancing the Meetings Industry. With this new partnership, we look forward to shaping a more sustainable and resilient future for the business tourism sector. UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili
This collaboration with the UN Tourism has been a long-held strategy of ICCA. This is great news not just for our members but for the whole international associations meetings and events industry. We know how intrinsically linked the world of business events and tourism are, but this formal partnership gives us privileged access to each other’s communities. The partnership agreement also signifies a closer alignment of our industry-leading programmes. ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath
About ICCA
ICCA is a global community and knowledge hub for the international association – and governmental – meetings industry. Founded in 1963, ICCA specialises in the international association meetings sector, offering data, education, communication channels, as well as business development and networking opportunities. Today, ICCA continues to advocate for the world of international meetings. The ICCA Association Community offers associations across the world education, connections, tools, and resources to help them organise more effective and successful meetings.
Related Links:
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
+34 91 567 8100
UN Tourism
