World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

About

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. UNWTO’s leadership vision acknowledges the most pressing challenges facing tourism and identifies the sector’s ability to overcome them and to drive wider positive change, including the opportunities responsible tourism offers for the advancement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNWTO members have endorsed the Management Vision of the Secretary-General which seeks to position tourism as a policy priority, lead in knowledge creation, enhance the Organization’s capacity through building new and stronger partnerships, and offer better value for existing Members while also expanding membership.

To realize the Management Vision, UNWTO’s work is based around five distinct pillars:

• making tourism smarter through celebrating innovation and leading the digital transformation of the sector;


• making tourism more competitive at every level through promoting investment and promoting entrepreneurship;


• creating more and better jobs and providing relevant training;


• building resilience and promoting safe and seamless travel; and


• harnessing tourism’s unique potential to protect cultural and natural heritage and to support communities both economically and socially.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO 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. 

UNWTO encourages the implementation of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, to maximize tourism’s socio-economic contribution while minimizing its possible negative impacts, and is committed to promoting tourism as an instrument in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), geared towards reducing poverty and fostering sustainable development worldwide.

UNWTO generates market knowledge, promotes competitive and sustainable tourism policies and instruments, fosters tourism education and training, and works to make tourism an effective tool for development through technical assistance projects in over 100 countries around the world. 

UNWTO’s membership includes 159 Member States, 6 Associate Members and over 500 Affiliate Members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities.