Upon her taking office, the Regional Director Programme for Africa, Elcia Grandcourt paid a series of courtesy visits to all the African Embassies represented in Spain. Her visits were mainly to introduce herself and also to reaffirm her commitment to continue with the work being done on the Africa programme whilst also to look at new opportunities and areas of cooperation with the member countries.  Her visits have been very well received by the Ambassadors and Chargés d’affaires she met with whilst being accompanied by Helder Tomas the Deputy Director of the Africa Programme.  Great feedback has been received from the discussions held and Mrs. Grandcourt says that the various ideas and proposals discussed will be integrated in their program of work for 2014 where the UNWTO plans to play a more active role in reaching out to the member countries and in getting them to be more involved in the activities programmed for the region.

The African Ambassadors Meeting and Lunch took place yesterday 18 November 2013 at the UNWTO Headquarters, in the presence of the Secretary-General, Mr. Taleb Rifai. The gathering, which will take place on an annual basis, represents a great opportunity for networking and also for keeping the Embassies informed on what the Program for Africa region has achieved during the year and also to provide an outlook for the coming year 2014. The event received a very high representation of 22 African Member States (Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zambia). During his address the Secretary General greeted the newly accredited Ambassadors to Madrid and once again extended his congratulations and commended Zambia/Zimbabwe on the organisation of a successful 20^th session of the UNWTO General Assembly held last August 2013 which was the most well attended. Other points of discussions included the update on International and African Tourism trends in 2013 and on Travel facilitation which represents one of the top priorities of the Organization’s agenda. The meeting concluded with an introduction of the main activities of the Africa region for the first quarter of 2014, a presentation on the upcoming 5^th edition of the INVESTOUR forum and the upcoming CAF Meeting to be held 28-30 April 2014 in Angola.

PR No.: PR13063

The report The Impact of Visa Facilitation in APEC Economies indicates that although there has been successful collaboration and advances across the APEC region to facilitate visas, including progressive approaches to implement new visa policies, 21% of expected international tourists arriving into APEC over the period 2014-2016 would still be required to obtain a traditional visa prior to travel under current visa policies.

Facilitating visas for these tourists could create as much as 2.6 million additional jobs in the APEC economies by 2016 and an additional US$ 89 billion in international tourism receipts generated by 57 million more tourists visiting APEC destinations.

Hosting the meeting, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, Mari Elka Pangestu, highlighted that the importance of tourism as a vehicle of job creation, economic growth and development in Asia Pacific has been acknowledged by APEC leaders through the launch, in 2011, of the APEC Travel Facilitation Initiative.

“The challenge now is to establish cooperation between officials working in tourism, finance, customs, immigration, security, transportation and airport authorities which are in different working groups. In 2013, through this High Level Policy Dialogue on Travel Facilitation held in Bali, for the fist time, there is an attempt of coordination across fora and we hope to end up with some action plans on visa and travel facilitation,” explained Minister Pangestu

Addressing the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue, UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, called on APEC leaders to look at the opportunities arising from visa facilitation. “This report clearly shows that placing visa facilitation as a national priority can translate into significant socio-economic benefits in terms of income and jobs generated by the growth of tourism demand. APEC has been a leading organization in terms of regional integration and we believe that visa facilitation can contribute significantly to advance APEC’s objectives and the balanced growth of its economies”.

David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC, said: “Encouraging freedom to travel is a key strategic priority for WTTC. It is a simple step for Governments which creates jobs, economic growth and incalculable social benefits. This report lays bare for the first time the precise opportunity in APEC economies and demands to be taken seriously by the region’s Governments.”

In spite of the great strides made in recent decades to facilitate tourist travel all over the world, there are still important areas of opportunity, namely considering the possibilities to maximize the use of information and communication technologies in improving visa procedures. Further opportunities include improving the delivery of information, facilitating current processes to obtain visas, differentiated treatment to facilitate tourist travel, instituting eVisa programmes and establishing regional agreements for visa facilitation.  UNWTO and WTTC have been working closely together in recent years to promote the value of visa facilitation as a means to stimulate economic growth and development, namely through joint regional studies and cooperation with the T20, the World Economic Forum (WEF), APEC and the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development  (OECD).  

Useful links:

Facilitation of Tourist Travel

Report: The Impact of Visa Facilitation in APEC Economies

Contacts:
 

UNWTO

Principal Media Officer: Marcelo Risi

Tel: (+34) 91 567 81 60

UNWTO.org

WTTC

Communications Director: Toby Nicol

Tel: (+44 ) 20 7481  6483

www.wttc.org

PR No.: PR13029

The project will build capacity within the Ministry of Tourism to set up a new classification system for the accommodation establishments, a central part of Morocco’s tourism strategy «Vision 2020». The new system should elevate the competitiveness of the hotel industry in Morocco according to international standards while creating a true culture of quality among the accommodation industry.

The agreement contemplates furthermore actions to raise awareness among tourism accommodation establishments and relevant stakeholders of the need for a new classification system, in order to ensure its sustainable implementation.

«This initiative will contribute to the economic and social development of Morocco as it creates opportunities to advance the quality of its tourism sector», said UNWTO Executive Director for Programme and Coordination, Fréderic Pierret, in signing the agreement on behalf of UNWTO.

The project, financed by the Government of Morocco, will be implemented by UNWTO who will provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Tourism between 2013 and 2018.

Morocco is the leading tourism destination in North Africa, with almost 10 million international tourist arrivals in 2012 and US$ 6.7 bn in revenues 2012. A UNWTO member since 1975, Morocco has shown a remarkable tourism growth, with international tourist arrivals more than doubling over the last decade. Much of this expansion was supported by its open skies policy and the diversification of its tourism product.

Contacts:

Principal Media Officer: Marcelo Risi

Tel: (+34) 91 567 81 60

UNWTO Communications Programme

Tel: +34 91-567-8100

Fax: +34 91-567-8218