Tourism has been identified by more than half of the world’s poorest countries as an effective means to take part in the global economy and reduce poverty. To maximise tourism’s role in helping countries reach their development goals, UNWTO has come together with seven UN agencies and programmes to boost tourism as an instrument for development.

Mountain resort professionals, from the Alps to the Rockies, as well as Asian destinations including the Republic of Korea, will debate how snow and mountain destinations can respond to current and future challenges

The UNWTO Regional Commission for Asia & the Pacific has expressed its full support for the people of Japan in the aftermath of the recent earthquake. The announcement comes as Japan confirmed it would decommission four stricken reactors at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant.

UNWTO and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand have officially concluded a project to help hotels along the Thai Andaman coast significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs through energy-saving technologies.

Women make up an important percentage of the tourism workforce, but more work must be done to close the wealth and skills gap between men and women employed in tourism, according to a new World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)/UN Women report launched at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin (11 March 2011).

UNWTO secretary-general Taleb Rifai has opened ITB Berlin with a well received speech urging tourism insiders to lead a “new decade of fairer, stronger and more sustainable growth”. Drawing applause on the first day of the event – staged for the 45th time this year – Rifai said: “The first decade of the 21st century was a decade of extraordinary tourism growth, but also of severe shocks: a decade that began with September 11th and ended with global economic crisis.