Source: UN Tourism
Source: UN Tourism
Source: UN Tourism
Source: UN Tourism

The Conference on Rethinking Africa: Rethinking Tourism for Africa: Addressing global challenges; Promoting investment and partnerships brought expert African perspectives to global challenges, highlighting the need of investments towards a greener tourism sector and access to finance within the sector and the need to further strengthen public-private collaboration at every level.

Tourism Ministers set out visions

  • Reflecting the heightened relevance of tourism as a solution to a range of global challenges and pillar of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Conference was structured around two thematic sessions with a ministerial panel on Addressing global challenges followed by a second one focusing on "Promoting Investment and Partnerships in Tourism for Economic Development. His Excellency Steven Obeegadoo, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Housing, and Land Use Planning and Minister of Tourism for the Republic of Mauritius, and Vice-Chair of the UNWTO Executive Council joined Albert Muchanga, Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals, African Union who delivered the keynote address.
  • A special Ministerial Panel Session focusing on global challenges featured contributions from the Ministers of Tourism of DR Congo Didier Mazenga Mukanzu, Minister of Tourism of Ghana Hon. Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Kenya Peninah Malonza, and Cabinet Secretary for Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage of Zambia Rhodney Sikumba, as well as Ms Lisa Singh, the UN Resident Coordinator for Mauritius and Seychelles and Prof Nazia M Habib, Head, Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge.

Advancing investments and partnerships

In line with UNWTO's priorities for the sector, the second session put the focus on the importance of building strategic relations and partnerships as well as the vital need for more and better-targeted investments in tourism, building tourism intelligence particularly in projects with the potential to deliver greater sustainability, resilience and inclusivity. UNWTO Executive Director Natalia Bayona opened the session with an overview of the tourism investment climate followed by presentations by Mr. Kevin Ramkaloan CEO Business Mauritius and messages from Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, Secretary General of The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Leila Farah Mokaddenm, Director General, Southern Africa Region, African Development Bank.

Botswana's Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism Philda Kereng, and Hon. Siandou Fofana, Minister of Tourism, Republic of Côte d´Ivoire, also contributed their unique, expert insights into rethinking tourism investments and partnerships. They were joined by Ms. Amanda Serumaga – Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme for Mauritius and Seychelles, Ms. Michaella Rugwizangoga, Chief Tourism Officer, Rwanda Development Board and Mr. Mamadu Serifo Jaquite, Mamadu Serifo Jaquite, Commissioner in charge of the Department of Human Development of the West African Monetary and Economic Union

The Mauritius Declaration

The conference culminated with the presentation of the Mauritius Declaration by the host country and UNWTO. The program of actions proposed in the Mauritius Declaration, aims to promote sustainable and resilient tourism ecosystems through multi-sectoral partnerships, ethical practices, investment promotion, nature-based solutions, decarbonization, coordination of public health, policy alignment and data-driven decision-making. This program includes a range of measures, including:

  • Encourage partnership and tourism ethics;
  • The promotion of investment, innovation and accessibility to financing;
  • Public health coordination and crisis management;
  • The integration of internal and regional tourism;
  • The encouragement of responsible and solidarity tourism;
  • The implementation of blue tourism;
  • Partnerships between public, private and community actors and models of governance; And
  • Pan-African Fund for Sustainable Tourism;

To enable this programme to be carried out under the best possible conditions, the Declaration also calls for the support, in accordance with their respective mandates, of the Member States of the UNWTO, the African Union Commission, the regional economic communities organizations, regional aviation institutions, banking institutions, the African Development Bank, international aid partners, donor communities and financial institutions.

About UN Tourism

The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

Our Priorities

Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.

Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.

Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.

Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UN Tourism Members' competitiveness through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.

Advancing tourism's contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.

Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.

Our Structure

Members: An intergovernmental organization, UN Tourism has 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.

Organs: The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization. The Executive Council take all measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.

Secretariat: UN Tourism headquarters are based in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in over 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East serve as the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents UN Tourism's 500 plus Affiliate members.

UN Tourism Communications Department
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UN Tourism

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