UN Tourism’s (former UNWTO) new headquarters presentation is expected to take place amid upcoming elections for the Secretary-General, which will be held in May in Madrid, the capital city that hosts the UN agency.

Five candidates are racing to lead the organization, requiring the support of 18 out of 35 voting countries to succeed. Current chief Zurab Pololikashvili faces strong contenders, including the former Greek Minister of Tourism, Harry Theoharis, and the former Secretary of Tourism of Mexico, Gloria Guevara, who has garnered public support from representatives of major international hotel chains such as Hilton and Hyatt.

Pololikashvili seeks for a third term

UN Tourism Secretary-General assured that despite being in the middle of the election race, he has not changed his agenda and remains focused on pending projects. He also highlighted that his strategy would keep focus on three pillars: education, sustainable tourism, and investments.

In this regard, he highlighted the success of the ‘Best Villages of the World’ campaign, which has already attracted 250 municipalities from five continents. “Thanks to this initiative, we are helping them attract innovation and investments; we are also helping to put them on the map and make them known to many people,” he noted.

Secretary-General explained that the goal of this project is to attract 500 villages and build a digital marketplace where these municipalities can share their products. “It is a process that requires time, patience, and money,” he stated.

Pololikashvili also defended the plan for regional offices initiated during his tenure. “We will soon open offices in Rio de Janeiro and Rabat, and two years ago we opened an office in Riyadh. These offices allow us to have a stronger presence on the ground and daily interaction with the territory,” he added.

New headquarters in Madrid to be presented during 2025

The Secretary-General commented that the new UN Tourism headquarters in Madrid ‘Congresses Palace’ will be presented in 2025. “The HQ will be located just opposite the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, enabling tourism promotion and collaboration with embassies,” Pololikashvili declared.

“Everyone knows that UNESCO is in Paris or FIFA is in Zurich, we want to make Madrid a symbol of international tourism,” said Pololikashvili.

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.