UNWTO welcomes Jamaica’s decision to waive visa requirements for Eastern European nationals and to extend indefinitely the current visa waiver system for some Latin American nationals. These important policy steps are in line with UNWTO’s call for countries worldwide to revise their visa regulations and procedures underscoring the close links between visa facilitation and economic growth through tourism.

UNWTO events at ITB Travel Trade Show 2013 include the 3rd Silk Road Ministers’ meeting, a session on consumer protection, and a meeting of the World Tourism Network on Child Protection, as well as the first UNWTO meeting exclusively dedicated to “Tourism and Intangible Cultural Heritage,” among others from March 6-10, 2013 in Berlin, Germany.

In Madrid this week, Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, met with Mr. Taleb Rifai, the Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), to discuss the bid by the islands for a seat on the Executive Council of the UNWTO, and also the desire for Seychelles to see the Slave Ruins of their Mission Lodge at Sans Soucis be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Chairman of the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), Mr. Shao Qiwei, and the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Secretary General, Taleb Rifai, have agreed to strengthen cooperation between both organisations as a key step towards advancing China’s tourism development objectives.

One billion tourists have travelled the world in 2012, marking a new record for international tourism – a sector that accounts for one in every 12 jobs and 30 per cent of the world’s services exports. On the symbolic arrival date of the one-billionth tourist, UNWTO revealed the actions tourists can take to ensure their trips benefit the people and places they visit, as voted by the public.   

Tourism leaders from around the world have gathered in Istanbul for the Global Summit on City Tourism: Catalysing economic development and social progress. The summit is organised by United Nations World Tourism Organisation in collaboration with ministry of culture and tourism of Turkey and The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey.