Make Tourism A Priority
The UNWTO is calling on the leaders of the G20 to consider including tourism in their agenda for its capacity to create more and better jobs.
In his meeting with the President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, and current G20 Chair, UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili, stressed the capacity of tourism to create jobs and the need to advance the adaptation of the sector to the digital transformation.
The 8th Meeting of the Tourism Ministers of the G20 economies was held in Buenos Aires this week and it focussed on the Future of Work – Tourism’s leading role in sustainable development: a driver for employment.
The meeting looked at how tourism can embrace innovation and technology, foster new skills development to create new decent jobs.
Argentina’s minister of tourism of Argentina, Gustavo Santos said that: “We need to promote the role that tourism has in shaping the future of our world as the sector that will create more jobs in the coming decade.”
UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili said: “Let us embrace the technological revolution and unleash its potential to create more and better jobs in our sector, making tourism a true pillar of the G20 objectives of inclusive and sustained growth.”
The G20 ministers of tourism, agreed to consider:
- Encouraging policies that promote full and productive employment and facilitate the progress of innovation in tourism and foster the creation of decent jobs, sustainable enterprises and entrepreneurship, in particular among women and the youth.
- Establishing favourable frameworks to stimulate innovation, entrepreneurship and connect ecosystems linking start-ups, main companies, investors and governments along the tourism value chain.
- Creating cooperation mechanisms between educational institutions at all levels, the private sector, governments and technology partners to review educational programmes and skills development policies.
- Considering the importance of SMEs in the tourism, heritage and cultural sectors due to their contribution to job creation as well as their role in preserving and promoting cultural resources.
- Promoting the use of digital technology to facilitate travel as well as involving technology stakeholders in national tourism policies.
In 2016, G20 countries received 904 million international tourist arrivals, which generated over US$ 1 trillion or 6.3% of all G20 exports.
