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Isdore Guvamombe
The 20th session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation general assembly, the second in the history of UNWTO to be held in Africa and the first in Southern Africa, came to a conclusion yesterday, with a solid agreement that tourism is the future of the world.
There was a strong aura of self-belief that Government can use tourism as a unifying factor and a tool for economic development and empowerment of communities.
The level of attendance ensured solid quorums for key decisions, with 120 delegations of UNWTO member states, 49 full ministers and 700 delegates participating.
“This was an assembly to celebrate Africa and to celebrate what tourism can do for Africa,” said UNWTO secretary-general Taleb Rifai, who thanked “the people of Livingstone and Victoria Falls for the way they welcomed the UNWTO family and we hope that this assembly has been up to your expectations”.
“For us, this was the best ever attended UNWTO general assembly since 1975.
“The two countries actually worked on their different power set ups, cultures and governments to put in place a memorable hosting,” he said.
The assembly discussed issues of the key relevance to the development of tourism, particularly visa facilitation, air connectivity and accessibility.
The ministerial round-table held on Monday 26 August that was attended by the Sadc Chairperson and President of Malawi, Mrs Joice Banda, was a clear assessment of both the progress and the remaining steps to be undertaken in the terms of visa facilitation.
Countries intervening in the assembly during the general debate on the topic of tourism and air transport policies shared advances and challenges in this area in their countries.
Issues such as visa facilitation, the need to make airports more visitor friendly, taxation, open skies and impact of low cost airlines were high during the debate .
The 20th session of the UNWTO general assembly also approved important recommendations on accessible tourism for all.
The recommendations define the appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have access on an equal basis with others, to all travel and tourism services infrastructure.
Furthermore, the assembly took important decisions including:
- The approval of UNWTO programme of work and the budget for the coming of Bienna (2014-2015)
- The approval of a set of recommendations on youths tourism
- The welcoming of the three new member states to the organisation — Myanmar, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Arab Emirates and of 88 new affiliate members.
The assembly was also enriched by several side events allowing delegates to hear from CNN, TASK, Mapfre, the ST-EP Foundation and UNWTO programmes on the communication in tourism travel insurance, ST-EP projects promoting poverty alleviation through tourism and the UNWTO technical assistance support and resource mobilisation for tourism for development .
The 20th session of the UNWTO general assembly was historical in many ways.
Firstly, it was the first time that it was co-hosted since the inception of the organisation into the UN family in 1975. Zimbabwe and Zambia made history.
Secondly, it was declared the best attended and the best in terms of discussion content and progress since the inception of the UNWTO general assembly.
Thirdly, this is the first ever time in history that a UNWTO general assembly has been held in Southern Africa.
It is the second ever time that it was held on African soil, after Senegal became the first African country to host it in 2005.
Fourth, this is the first ever time a Southern African country, Zimbabwe, has been elected to chair the African Commission of the UNWTO. That means history has been made and made big time.
Tomorrow afternoon, the UNWTO secretariat is expected to issue a communiqué to journalists covering the event at a briefing to be held in Livingstone, Zambia.
Online Reporter