Opportunities for Member States through the 2022 UNGA Report on the promotion of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism, for poverty eradication and environment protection

• Africa
• 4 May 2022

Every two years, the Secretariat of UNWTO prepares global and regional reports for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), on the implementation of UN resolutions, within its mandate, which include recommendations on ways and means to promote sustainable and resilient tourism development.

The previous global report on the “Promotion of Sustainable Tourism including Ecotourism for Poverty Eradication and Environment Protection” was prepared in 2020 and is therefore due for preparation again in 2022.

The upcoming report and its subsequent resolution offer many opportunities and benefits for Member States from all regions, as key instruments for devising new approaches, strategic actions and accelerators to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable development and to promote a sustainable recovery in the tourism sector; to better respond to today's global sustainability challenges, such as biodiversity loss and climate change and to advance new ideas for the resilience of the tourism sector.

In order to prepare this report, UNWTO will send a Note Verbale to its Member States in the first quarter of 2022 requesting substantive contributions and updates since the last report, providing them with early and effective opportunities to contribute to the preparation of the report, including through consultations until the submission of the report to the UNGA in July when the document is sent to the conference management service in New York to be edited and translated in time for the 77th session of the UNGA in September 2022.

In Africa, Member States have much to say about the issues addressed in the report, by submitting inputs on both, progress and challenges encountered on the development and practical implementation of tourism strategies and policies, as well as on new strategic proposals that strengthen tourism as a powerful vehicle for inclusive growth and job creation, for the protection of  their natural and cultural heritage, and the overall promotion of tourism as an effective enabler of sustainable development, as a  sector that energizes economies and drives the socio-economic transformation of African countries.

After the submission of the report, there are also many opportunities for engagement in the negotiation process of the related draft resolution under the Second Committee of the UNGA, which Member States will negotiate after the presentation of the report. The draft resolution is an important political element in trying to reach consensus on any new proposals put forward in the report, offering leadership opportunities for Member States as the main sponsor(s) of the draft resolution.  Classically, this negotiation is expected to take place around October 2022 between the diplomatic representations of Member States to the UNGA.

As part of its online services to the UNWTO Members in 2022, webinars are being offered to Member States in order to explain the process of preparing the report, its coverage, relevance and scope as well as the negotiation process of the related draft resolution.