UN Tourism | Bringing the World Closer

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency responsible for promoting 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 provides leadership and support for the tourism industry in advancing global knowledge and tourism policies.

Our priorities

Mainstream tourism in the global agenda: Advocate for the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, making it a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for tourism to grow and prosper.

Promote sustainable tourism development: Support sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies that make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits to all.

Promoting knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries in assessing and meeting their education and training needs and providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving the competitiveness of UN Tourism members through knowledge creation and exchange, human resource development and in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.

Promoting tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by using tourism as a development tool and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.

Building partnerships: Working 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

Membership: UN Tourism is an intergovernmental organization with 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.

Organs: The General Assembly is the highest organ of the Organization. The Executive Council, in consultation with the Secretary-General, takes all measures to implement the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to it.

Secretariat: UN Tourism is headquartered in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and is divided into several departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and tourism satellite accounts, destination management, ethics, risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in more than 100 countries around the world, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East are the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents more than 500 Affiliate Members of UN Tourism.