London, Britain — The latest UNWTO data shows that the global tourism now at around 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels creating prospects for worldwide growth in tourism-related jobs. .
“Our job is to create jobs,” UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili told tourism sector leaders as education, sustainability, and governance took centre stage at the Ministers’ Summit at the World Travel Market (WTM).
The WTM offers a platform for public and private sector leaders, addresses tourism’s most pressing issues and sets the agenda for the years ahead. Held around the theme of ‘Rethinking Tourism’, the 16th Summit gathered ministers and high-level delegates from 19 countries, alongside business leaders.
Opening the event, Pololikashvili emphasised the unique opportunity to transform the sector. However, with UNWTO data showing that global tourism now at around 70% of pre-pandemic levels, “the window of opportunity will not stay open forever. We need to rethink tourism: as a provider of jobs, an economic pillar, and, against the backdrop of COP27, as a solution to the climate emergency”.
Presenting an overview of UNWTO’s work leading the transformation of tourism, Pololikashvili focused on investing in sustainable infrastructure and in people, most notably through quality education and providing decent jobs.
Echoing UNWTO’s position, Juliette Losardo, Exhibition Director at World Travel Markets, noted that “a post-pandemic world has revealed exciting opportunities, and given us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconsider tourism and ask ourselves how we can rebuild and better prepare for the future”.
Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which co-organises the summit with UNWTO, emphasized the “talent, speed and capital” of the private sector.
While the summit promoted diversity of thought, background and experiences, a focus on tourism’s unique power as a driver of sustainability and as a promoter of peace and understanding proved a common theme.
High-level participants emphasized that now is the time for the tourism sector to focus more on cooperation rather than competition. Ministers also acknowledged Pololikashvili’s call for tourism to be mainstreamed within the political agenda and for greater collaboration between ministries of tourism and those of economy, business and environment.