On International Volunteer Day, December 2011 under the theme “Volunteering Matters,” UNWTO is highlighting how tourism and volunteer work can make a difference through its UNWTO volunteers.

The Minister of Tourism of Kenya, Najib Balala, met with UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, to debate the priorities for the work of the Organization in 2012 as Kenya takes the chairmanship of the UNWTO Executive Council.

The fifth UNWTO & World Travel Market Ministers’ Summit has argued the social and economic benefits of tourism could be strengthened if governments collaborated more closely with each other and the private sector over visas, taxation, aviation agreements and marketing.

Despite the downward revision of the country’s economic growth forecast, US tour operators predict US travelers will return to Europe in growing numbers. This is the main finding of a new World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)/European Travel Commission (ETC) report on US outbound travel presented at the World Travel Market with the support of the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) .

The recent ETC/UNWTO study of the US Outbound Travel Market is the springboard for today’s seminar, organised jointly with ETOA. The session brings together the leading lights of UNWTO, ETC, ETOA and USTOA as well as major operators.

International tourist arrivals grew by a healthy 4.5 per cent in the first eight months of 2011 according to the latest data from UNWTO. Europe up six per cent, surprisingly, showed the strongest growth amid continuing economic uncertainty.