(TAN): The United Nations General Assembly met for a first ever dedicated session on tourism and its key role in inclusive recovery and growth, UNWTO said.
The high-level thematic debate was convened by the president of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, in collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). In the General Assembly Hall, government representatives joined public and private stakeholders in recognizing tourism’s unique ability to drive positive change.
As the first UNWTO Secretary-General to address the UN General Assembly, Zurab Pololikashvili said: “Now is the time to build resilient and peaceful societies and tourism can help make this happen! Tourism is a leading provider of opportunities because it is based on people, builds bridges and helps create a better tomorrow for people everywhere.”
Joining Secretary-General Pololikashvili in opening the session were Shahid and UN Deputy Secretary-General and UNSDG Chair Amina J. Mohammed, who noted, “Every part of the United Nations system, including the World Tourism Organization as its specialized agency for the sector, can leverage tourism to help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, from inclusive growth to gender empowerment and biodiversity protection.”
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Shahid stressed the importance of tourism, particularly for small islands and developing states. He said: “We face a critical opportunity to not only reboot tourism, upon which so many are dependent for their jobs and livelihoods, but to transform it to make it more resilient, more sustainable and more responsible.”
The high-level debate also featured a special roundtable discussion focused on tourism for people, with an emphasis on inclusivity. This was followed by a roundtable discussion on accelerating the climate-friendly transformation of tourism. The concluding third roundtable discussion focused on re-invigorating investments in tourism.
On the eve of the debate, Pololikashvili had met with Shahid for discussions on tourism’s role in the wider work of the United Nations. Shahid commended UNWTO’s work in guiding tourism first through the biggest crisis in its history and now through the sector’s restart and recovery. The high-level meeting also laid the foundations for the potential inclusion of tourism as a topic of annual debates or thematic sessions within the UN General Assembly.
