Extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Statistics

The extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Statistics was held in Silk Road Samarkand Congress Center, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, 16 October 2023, in the framework of the 25th session of the UN Tourism General Assembly

Chairs: Austria, Spain
Vice Chairs: Saudi Arabia, Seychelles

1. High Level Panel: a 360 data approach to empower tourism

Opening by Ms. Zoritsa Urosevic, UN Tourism Executive Director

Moderator: Ms. Zoritsa Urosevic, UN Tourism Executive Director

H.E. Mr. William Rodríguez López, Minister of Tourism, Costa Rica
H.E. Mr. Louis Sylvestre Radegonde, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Seychelles
H.E. Ms. Rosana Morillo, State Secretary of Tourism, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Spain
H.E. Ms. Verónica Pardo, Undersecretary of Tourism, Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, Chile
Ms. Verna C. Buensuceso, OIC-Undersecretary, Tourism Development, Department of Tourism, the Philippines
Mr. Athanasios C. Thanopoulos, President, Hellenic Statistical Authority
Mr. Richard Kämpf, Head of Tourism Affairs, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Switzerland and Chair of the UNWTO Programme and Budget Committee
Ms. Monika Klinger, Head of Department for International Tourism Affairs, Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy, Austria

2. A crucial moment for the UNWTO Committee on Statistics

UN Tourism’s statistical programme of work
Final sprint to a global standard: Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST)

Ms. Clara van der Pol, Director a.i., Statistics Department, UN Tourism (see presentation)
Mr. Michel Dubreuil, Destination Canada and Chair of the MST Editorial Board (see presentation)

Discussion

3. Strategic data to transform business models

Towards a harmonized ESG Framework for Tourism Businesses and findings from pilots

Ms. Laura Ballerini, Oxford SDG Impact Lab, University of Oxford (see presentation)
Ms. Rola Fayyad, Founder & CEO, ViaVii (see presentation)

4. Closing by the Chairs

UN Tourism rethinks sustainable tourism with the MST Statistical Framework.

Enabling global data exchange for informed policies.

At #25UNWTOGA, led by Spain and Austria, Member States unite for international consensus. pic.twitter.com/7ThB7yojRS
— World Tourism Organization (@UNWTO) October 16, 2023