In a session named ‘Tourism Financing for the 2030 Agenda’ at the 2019 Global Review of Aid for Trade at the headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, the UNWTO Secretary-General emphasized the main role the world tourism sector plays in financial growth as well as employment generation.
Ministers, development partners and financing institutions require better understanding and identify the manner in which tourism can contribute to the 2030 Sustainable Agenda. Tourism is overtly highlighted as a target in three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (8, 12 and 14), although, speakers at the Geneva session observed, for the sector to truly identify its massive potential, the amount of aid and development financing directed towards tourism needs to be increased significantly.
“This is an important time for both the tourism and the international development sectors,” said Pololikashvili. “Strengthening and unlocking aid flows for tourism will help the sector be a driver of job creation, as well as of social and economic development and economic diversity. Working together, we can harness the power of the new aid architecture and ensure that nobody gets left behind as tourism transforms lives around the world,” he said.
Tags: UNWTO
