New UNWTO
Roadmap for Recovery for Tourism and Travel – Call to World Leaders to
include Sector in Economic, Stimulus Actions
Astana, Kazakhstan, 8 October 2009
- The 18th
session of the UNWTO General Assembly concluded with unanimous
endorsement of a Roadmap for Recovery to mainstream travel and tourism
into economic stimulus packages being considered by global leaders. It
underscored the enormous importance of the sector for job creation,
trade and development.
- It expressed strong concern about the
dangers of increasing taxes which focus on the sector at a time of
economic uncertainty and called on governments to reconsider proposed
increases.
- It also adopted a strong declaration on
Facilitation of Tourism designed to encourage governments to remove
unnecessary regulatory and bureaucratic restrictions on travel which
hamper its flow and reduce its economic impacts.
- The
Assembly also made significant steps to better prepare UNWTO for future
challenges, by electing a new Secretary-General Taleb Rifai with a new
Management Team.
- The Assembly was presided by H.E. Mr.Termirkhan Dosmukhambetov, Minister of Tourism and Sports of Kazakhstan.
The General Assembly
unanimously elected Taleb Rifai as Secretary-General for the period
2010-2013 and welcomed his new management team. Mr Rifai called for
greater transparency and accountability, and for the Organization to
become more programme-based and results oriented, as reflected in his
Management Strategy presented to the Assembly.
The Assembly approved the
Roadmap for Recovery
to respond to the economic crisis and its effect on the Travel and
Tourism sector. The Roadmap is a manifesto that identifies the sector’s
importance in global economic resilience; stimulus and transformation
to a green economy. It details areas where the travel and tourism
sector can play an essential role in post crisis recovery in terms of
jobs, infrastructure, trade and development. It calls on world leaders
to place tourism and travel at the core of stimulus packages and the
long-term green economy transformation. It calls for special attention
and support for developing states in terms of capacity building,
technology transfer and financing. It also sets out a basis for action
for governments and the industry to deal with the short and long term
economic, climate and poverty challenges in a coherent way.
The Assembly called for a moratorium on burdensome travel taxes
which target tourism, citing in particular the UK Airport Passenger
Duty. These taxes place a serious burden on poor countries, undermine
universal efforts to promote fair tourism trade and distort markets.
The Assembly passed a Declaration encouraging governments to review
burdensome border control regulations and visa policies and to simplify
them wherever possible to boost travel and increase its economic
impacts.
The Assembly expressed its support for a successful outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Conference and endorsed t
he UN-led Seal the Deal Campaign which seeks to. galvanize widespread support for a fair and balanced Copenhagen accord.
The Assembly also reviewed and endorsed action taken by UNWTO in
the framework of the UN system, to increase tourism’s preparedness to
respond to the H1N1 pandemic.
The Assembly adopted the Astana Declaration underscoring
the relevance of the Silk Road Initiative, which highlights the
exceptional value and diversity of the tourism potential of the
countries traversed by the ancient Silk Roads.
The Assembly welcomed Vanuatu as a new Full Member, while a total
of 89 private and public Affiliate Members also joined. UNWTO now has
161 Member states and regions and a record high 409 Affiliate Members.
The Assembly also called upon those UN member countries that do not yet
belong to the UNWTO to join the Organization.
The Assembly accepted the invitation of the Republic of Korea to
hold its nineteenth session in 2011. Dates to be agreed upon with the
Government of that country.
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