About the Regional Department for Europe

Regional Department for Europe

Regional Department for Europe serves the UN Tourism Member States in the Region for Europe to achieve the highest standards of performance in Tourism Policy and Tourism Governance by establishing adequate contents in the Programme of Work.

The work of the Department is based on four pillars:

  • Advocacy: ensuring a central position of tourism in the national governance and policymaking
  • Communication: supporting Members to achieve their communication objectives by coaching and lending voice
  • Knowledge & expertise: providing training and guidance to improve knowledge, skills, understanding and implementation of tourism related initiatives
  • Sustainability: introducing different tools and mechanisms to ensure a balance between the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development

The Region for Europe is the biggest and most diverse region in UN Tourism with 41 Member States, 2 Associate Members and 1 Permanent Observer. The countries in the region generate roughly one half of global international tourist arrivals.

The majority of Members in the region belong to various supranational organizations, most notably the European Union, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the EU Candidate Countries. The Department also collaborates with the non-member countries in the region.

Contact Information

World Tourism Organization
Regional Department for Europe (RDEU)
Calle Poeta Joan Maragall, 42
28020 Madrid, Spain

E: rdeu[at]unwto.org
T: +34 91 567 81 00

RDEU Team

Cordula Wohlmuther joined UN Tourism in 2006, initially serving as a Regional Officer before becoming the Deputy Regional Director for Europe. In 2012, she took special leave to conduct research on tourism and peace at the Centre for Peace Research and Peace Education in Austria, resulting in two publications, including the International Handbook on Tourism and Peace, which won the 2015 ITB Special Management Award.

After returning in 2015, Cordula was appointed Head of UN Tourism Institutional Relations and Partnerships Department. In this role, she successfully, inter alia, contributed the implementation of the International Year of Sustainable Tourism 2017 and the development of the Organization´s first Resource Mobilization Strategy, which was endorsed by the UN Tourism General Assembly the same year.

In 2020, Ms. Wohlmuther transitioned to the role of Coordinator in UN Tourism Department of Sustainable Tourism and Resilience. Here she has been responsible for implementing sustainability and monitoring initiatives at the destination level, in particular through managing the International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (INSTO). At the same time, she served as one of the lead authors of twelve reports on COVID-19 related travel restrictions for international tourism 2020-2023, which include analysis related to sustainability aspects. Cordula is also one of the lead authors of UN Tourism 2023 Tourism Visa Openness Report.

Before joining UN Tourism, Cordula worked from 2000 to 2006 in the Organization of Cooperation and Security (OSCE) Project Coordinator`s Office in Kyiv, Ukraine. As a Senior Programme Manager, she was responsible for projects on fighting against trafficking in human beings, initiatives on anticorruption and rule of law, and the re-training of former military personnel.

Cordula has a master’s degree from the University in Vienna. She has been involved in freelance tourism work since 1988. Ms. Wohlmuther is fluent in English, Russian and Spanish, with some knowledge of French, Italian and Ukrainian, while her first language is German. She is a national of Austria.