The UNWTO is to work alongside IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to fund sustainable training programmes in developing countries.
These will focus on both stimulating tourism’s recovery from the current crisis, while at the same time promoting green financing to enhance sustainability across the whole of the tourism value chain.
UNWTO Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili said: “Sustainable tourism should no longer be considered a special niche. Instead, this pause in global travel offers us a chance to rethink tourism and make the whole sector more sustainable as we grow back better and stronger. This new initiative with IFC will provide valuable guidelines on Sustainable Tourism Investments that enhance tourism’s contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The UNWTO said that there were 200,000 hotels providing 18 million beds worldwide, with a further 2.4 million rooms in the pipeline. These alone account for 1% of global greenhouses gas emissions and so increasing the sustainability of this part of the global tourism sector can make a significant contribution to climate-related Sustainable Development Goals.