UNWTO Joins Global Tourism Economy Forum for Landmark 10th Edition

Convening around the theme of "Destination 2030: Unlocking the Power of Tourism for Business and Development", the landmark edition of the Forum brought together representatives from governments, destinations and business. With UNWTO's newly-released data showing a return to 82% of pre-pandemic levels of international arrivals, the Forum focused on ensuring tourism transformation advances hand-in-hand with the sector's rapid recovery.

Advancing a Joined-Up Approach

GTEF 2023 brought to the forefront the potential of the sector to balance the needs of people and the planet, while at the same time contributing to prosperity. In Macau, UNWTO emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships for delivering positive and lasting change while setting out its key priorities for the sector in the years ahead:

Investments: According to data from UNWTO and fDi Intelligence, China attracted the highest number of tourism FDI projects between 2018 and 2022, with around 15% of the total market share of the Asia and Pacific region. In this time, foreign investors announced a total of 2,415 tourism greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the tourism cluster, with total capital investment of USD 175.5 billion. Of these, 66 % were in hotel infrastructure, 16 % in technology and Innovation for the sector and 9 % in tourism entertainment.
In terms of non-traditional investments, venture capital funding in travel and tourism between reached USD 48 billion in the last five years (2018-2023). In this period, the sub-sectors with highest amount of VC funding were Travel (39.85%), hospitality (24.99%) and air transportation (10%).
Education: UNWTO is working leading Chinese academic institutions including Beijing International Studies University, the Mandarin Center and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to deliver online courses and give tourism workers a better professional understanding of innovation.
Partnerships: UNWTO has worked with GTEF since the first Forum. In Macau, the Organization strengthened its relationship with key partners, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Radisson Hotel Group, AIM Global Foundation and with non-traditional investment entities and venture capitals such as LUAfund and Yellow River Global Capital Limited and with the fDi Intelligence from the Financial Times

The Global Tourism Economy Forum is set to be the world's premier platform for cooperation between Governments and the private sector in the area of tourism for development. We are proud to be part of the 10th edition of the Forum and are highly encouraged by the shared determination of all participants to build a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive tourism sector that works for everyone. UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili

Investment and Financing for Tourism

Against the backdrop of GTEF 2023, UNWTO further advanced its work around investments and tourism, bringing its expert insights to inform high-level discussions in Macau. The 2nd World Tourism Investment & Financing Conference, organized by the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF) and the Ivy Alliance in collaboration with UNWTO, provided a platform to explore the biggest challenges and opportunities for tourism investments, both in China and globally.

Within the one-day Conference, UNWTO hosted a special partner session on "Redefining Tourism Investments: from private equity to venture capital acceleration". UNWTO opened the stage, framing discussions around its vision for a new investments framework, which includes rethinking promotion and tax incentives for investors into the sector.

Today more than ever, investing in education, innovation, technology and empowering youth through an entrepreneurial mindset need to be part of the public-private cooperation to assure the sustainable growth of the sector. UNWTO executive Director Natalia Bayona

About UN Tourism

The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

Our Priorities

Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.

Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.

Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UN Tourism Members' competitiveness through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.

Advancing tourism's contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.

Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.

Our Structure

Members: An intergovernmental organization, UN Tourism has 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.

Organs: The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization. The Executive Council take all measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.

Secretariat: UN Tourism headquarters are based in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in over 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East serve as the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents UN Tourism's 500 plus Affiliate members.

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