The 118th UNWTO Executive Council Meeting Takes Place in the Dominican Republic

The Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic, David Collado, made a fervent call to the members of the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), who are meeting in the country, to seek solutions common problems such as sargassum that affects much of the Caribbean.

“The solution to the sargassum problem cannot be individual,” said Collado in his opening remarks at the 118th meeting of the UNWTO executive council, which took place this week in the eastern tourist region of the country.

Collado added that “solutions should be sought to the issues that affect the region at a general level, in reference to sargassum and that organizations like this one should help small countries to find solutions when we don’t have them.”

He indicated that tourism is not a luxury for the Dominican Republic, but something essential due to the impact it has on the economy, which represents more than 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the opening of the meeting, the Secretary General of the UNWTO, Zurab Pololikashvili, highlighted the achievements made by the country in terms of tourism, especially its rapid recovery. He stated that the Dominican Republic has become a world benchmark for tourism.

Also, he thanked the country, “Mr. Minister David Collado, without you and your team it would have been impossible to organize this summit, the most important for our organization and the most important for tourism”, were his words. The Foreign Affairs Roberto Álvarez highlighted the importance for the country of this meeting, which is being held for the first time in the Dominican Republic. “We hope that this forum is especially conducive to promoting responsible, local, sustainable and universally accessible tourism”.

About the Event
More than 19 ministers from 38 nations present, including the 35 member countries and 3 observers, as well as some 200 delegates, are participating in this 118th UNWTO meeting, which takes place in Punta Cana, from Tuesday to Thursday, were industry leaders Worldwide. In this meeting, all the industry players discuss the advances, experiences, strategies, and challenges for the future, and as the main theme, sustainability in tourism, in the search for the development of more sustainable tourist destinations.

Within the agenda of the event, inter-institutional forums on Sustainable Tourism were held yesterday in the Dominican Republic, as well as “Tourism for Sustainable Development Goals”, the project “Transforming tourism value chains in developing countries and small states insular.”

SOURCE: Dominican Republic press release.