The 24th session of the General Assembly will feature the 5th edition of the UNWTO Tourism Video Competition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven the relevance of multimedia communications within the new reality. The ongoing shift towards digitalization, changing viewer and user habits and the consolidation of mobile-first strategies have all accelerated since the pandemic broke. In addition, destinations around the world are preparing to restart tourism committed to seizing tourism’s unmatched contribution to people and planet.

The competition will feature two categories:

• Exceptional Stories of Tourism Resilience: This category looks for remarkable examples which showcase the importance of the human aspect of tourism as a sector and with a positive social impact that generates optimism and opportunities for all.
• Tourism Promotion and the Decade of Action. This category looks for remarkable examples of how Member Countries are linking their promotional videos either directly or indirectly to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through references to one or several of the 17 Global Goals.

One winning video will be chosen per region for both categories. This is an opportunity to position tourism as a key recovery sector to grow back better, stronger and building resilience.

Member States are encouraged to submit videos for both categories. Affiliate Members are encouraged to submit videos for the “Exceptional Stories of Sustainable Tourism” category.

The winners of the 5th edition of the UNWTO Tourism Video Competition will be announced during the 24th session of the General Assembly.

Exceptional Stories of Tourism Resilience

Tourism Promotion and the Decade of Action

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The 43rd UNWTO Affiliate Members Plenary Session will take place on 30 November  in Madrid as the first official activity of the General Assembly. The Plenary Session is the most important governing structure of the Affiliate Members and offers them an ideal setting to share initiatives and debate on the annual Programme of Work.

This year, the Affiliate Members Plenary Session will be held in the framework of the General Assembly, which provides the Affiliate Members with the opportunity to participate in the sessions of the General Assembly and other relevant events and activities, contribute to the UNWTO Programme of Work along with the Member States, hold bilateral meetings with high-level public sector representatives in order to discuss public-private cooperation issues, and be updated on the UNWTO’s overall activity.

On this occasion, the agenda of the Affiliate Members Plenary Session will focus on the following priority topics:

• Joint Affiliate Member actions for tourism recovery;
• Review of the Programme of Work 2021 and proposals for the Programme of Work for 2022-2023; and
• Approval of the revised Legal Framework of Affiliate Membership.

In addition, the 43rd Plenary Session will take place prior to the election of the new Board of the Affiliate Members. Therefore, the Affiliate Members who will be presenting their candidatures will have an ideal opportunity to network and promote their candidatures a few days before the voting phase.

For further information, please contact the Affiliate Members Department: am@unwto.org

Related links: AM Corner “We are Affiliate Members”

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On 2 December, the Thematic Session on “Building for the Future: Innovation, Education and Rural Development” will focus on how to harness the contribution of digitalization, MSMEs, education and policy to drive inclusive recovery through tourism and leave no one behind.

1. Launch of the UNWTO Digital Futures Programme for SMEs created to accelerate economic recovery of the tourism sector by supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Travel Tech and Mobility Startups to unleash digital technologies to create jobs and enhance future resilience in the linkages of the tourism value chain post COVID-19. The goal of the Programme is to digitalize 20 million SMEs by 2024.
2. Restarting tourism through Innovation & Education for future generations: This session will focus on how innovation can foster inclusion and support destinations resiliency and competitively and will include case studies presenting the 4 winning startups from the UNWTO Global Rural Tourism Startup Competition and 4 UNWTO Member States sharing insights on the impact of entrepreneurship on rural communities, offering insights and inspiration to stakeholders and destinations.
3. 2021 Global UNWTO Students' League: This session will showcase how youth and the future tourism leaders of our sector are a powerful asset when creating sustainable solutions to build back better, as well give the audience an inspiring insight into their thoughts, through a debate with Ministers about the tourism, its future and their future within it. To get to this session, the winning Students of the 2021 Global UNWTO Students' League—from ages 11 to 29—have previously competed in the League to give their best sustainable ideas on how to address the Challenges set for this year: ‘Rural Development through Tourism’ and ‘Plastics Pollution’.
4. Policies to Foster Tourism for Rural Development: This Ministerial session will focus on how to develop effective policies for rural development through tourism including whole of government approach, financing, national/local policy coordination and public-private partnerships.
5. Official Announcement Ceremony of the Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO:  villages recognized as “Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO” in the first edition of the initiative (pilot) will be announced.

For any enquiries about the session, please contact: Addaia Arizmendi aarizmendi@unwto.org

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