Making tourism stronger and ready for the future

The way in which the pandemic has developed over the closing weeks of the year gives us all reason for concern and to again put public health above everything else. But recent developments again validate our initial position: the only way forward is through collaboration and actions that are based on evidence rather than on speculation or political strategy.

Over the past year, much progress has been made in rolling out vaccinations and in both detecting and treating Covid-19. A significant progress made in finding the right balance between keeping people safe and keeping the vital lifeline of tourism intact. A collaborative and multilateral approach is and must remain at the centre of capitalizing on the lessons we have learned in such a short space of time.

Ensuring harmonized travel protocols has been the message since day one. They are at the heart of tourism's restart in many parts of the world, most notably in the Northern Hemisphere destinations during the peak summer months.

Like never before, the pandemic has made clear tourism's relevance to our economies and societies. Tourism is now part of the global conversation and at the heart of both national and international recovery action plans. The global innovation ecosystem is now made up of more than 12,000 startups from 160 countries, with $83 million mobilized and 300 corporate partners currently working on new tourism technologies.

UNWTO's education programmes are reaching unprecedented numbers of people, welcoming more than 20,000 students from 100 countries in just 18 months. It's promoting lifelong learning via partnerships with the world's top five institutions in tourism and hospitality. Together, IE university, Les Riches, Glion Institute, Ecole du Casse and the Swiss Education Group offer 19 online courses in Spanish, English and Arabic - a true 'online university of universities'.

Underpinning it all are data analytics on tourism investments powered by our partnership with the Financial Times. Through this, first UNWTO tourism investment guidelines came up, which are now scaling up to create guidelines for doing tourism businesses by country.

Restarting tourism is unthinkable without green investments. Collaborating with institutions such as the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and the Inter-American Development Bank is on the cards. To date, more than 200 investors are part of UNWTO's global investment network advancing critical work such as supporting hotel chains from 50 countries to become more sustainable.

Tourism is ready to do the hard work and live up to its responsibilities to people and planet, as demonstrated by the huge interest we have received in the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, launched at the UN Climate Summit COP26. A growing number of commitments to halve emissions by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050 at the latest, with Member countries, individual destinations, global companies and local players as well as media outlets, hundreds are on board, and counting.

And for people, it's to be ensured that benefits tourism offers are enjoyed as widely and fairly as possible. That includes establishing the sector as a driver of rural development, as celebrated through the best tourism villages by UNWTO initiative. Launched to great enthusiasm this year, 44 villages from 32 countries were granted the recognition during our recent General Assembly, for showing a commitment to tourism development in line with the sustainable development goals.