New Narratives in Tourism: UNWTO Leads Rethink of Tourism Communications
“Put people front and centre!” was the core message as UNWTO brought together global branding experts, journalists and content creators to rethink narratives around tourism communications.
Against the backdrop of the 118th session of its Executive Council in Punta Cana, UNWTO hosted a special Thematic Session. Alongside assessing the evolution of tourism communications, the Session saw leading experts explore current and future opportunities for more effectively portraying tourism as an essential driver of development, both in traditional media and on content platforms.
UNWTO is working to build a new narrative around tourism as a force for development and transformation
"New Narratives in Tourism"
With tourism high on the political agenda like never before, UNWTO is leading the shift in tourism communications, with a greater focus on the sector's unique power as a driver of development and opportunity. Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: "We have made huge progress over the past few years in making tourism's relevance more visible and more appreciated, by governments and by tourists themselves. But we need to make it even clearer. For this reason, UNWTO is working to build a new narrative around tourism as a force for development and transformation."
The Thematic Session offered a platform to connect content creators with editors and new media platforms, with UNWTO as the bridge between the two.
Branding and Media Experts Lead the Change
- Representing the global leader Interbrand, Pedro Zarzalejos, Associate Director, Strategy and Borja Borrero, Executive Director Iberia, EMEA & Latam charted the evolution of branding and analysed how this has impacted the tourism sector.
- Michael Collins, Founder and Managing of Travel Media gave expert insights into the changing relationship between Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) and editors, journalists and content creators.
Instagram and Meta: Keeping Content Relevant
UNWTO first partnered with Instagram in 2021, firstly to help lead recovery from the impacts of the pandemic and then to empower destinations to embrace digital storytelling. In Punta Cana:
- From Instagram, Ernest Voyard, Director of Public Policy, noted how creators are increasingly moving beyond aspirational travel-related content and instead focusing on issues around sustainability and full immersion in destinations.
- From Meta, Sharon Yang, Director of External Affairs, noted how the platform has seen a shift towards creators providing informative tourism and travel-related content, again moving away from more aspirational images and films.
Tourism on the Agenda: The Case of Dominican Republic
Leading journalists and editors from the Dominican Republic assessed how to place tourism on the editorial agenda at every level.
- Leading the discussion were Director of Diario Libre, Inés Aizpún, Director of El Día José Monegro, and the Ambassador of the permanent mission of Dominican Republic to UNWTO Aníbal de Castro
- The panel highlighted the importance of diversifying the main messaging, with a focus on everything from film and TV tourism to gastronomy tourism
Content Creators: Raising Awareness
To round out the session, UNWTO welcomed leading content creators to give their expert insights into changing trends in tourism-related content: Instagram Creators Chloé Léger and Marion Payr, provided their experiences from the Dominican Republic from the point-of-view of tourism and travel-creators. They noted:
- A growing interest in content linking tourism with issues including women's empowerment, community development and wildlife conservation.
- An opportunity for creators to influence the travel choices and behaviours of tourists, in particular in influencing younger consumers to travel more responsibly and ethically
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.
