Taleb Rifai and Geoffrey Lipman
From 1 March 2009, Taleb Rifai, Deputy Secretary-General, will perform the duties of Secretary-General ad interim, in accordance with the decision taken by the UNWTO Executive Council last October. He will be supported by Geoffrey Lipman, Assistant Secretary-General and Spokesperson and by Eugenio Yunis, Director of Programme and Coordination.
Francesco Frangialli said: "I would like to express my confidence in the team that will remain in place when I leave the UNWTO Secretariat"
After almost 20 years serving UNWTO, the Organization has:
• expanding membership of 154 States, with others in the pipeline;
• UNWTO´s conversion into a specialized agency of the United Nations;
• creation of a universally accepted system of Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA);
• adoption of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism recognized by the UN General Assembly as the basis for responsible tourism;
• placing of tourism as a key element in the international agenda for sustainable development and the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
UNWTO is further enhancing its relations with ITB, by hosting a series of high level events to debate key industry challenges.
The centrepiece will be the 2nd meeting of the Tourism Resilience Committee (TRC). This will constitute, as proven during the first meeting held in Madrid, a unique forum to discuss the economic situation and its impact on the tourism sector. Besides assessing the current situation and short term prospects, the meeting will focus on debating response with the participation of key public and private sector representatives.
In addition UNWTO will be holding sessions on Tourism Ethics highlighting the Protection of Children in Tourism, its Tourism Emergency Response Network (TERN) and two Affiliate Members meetings.
To enhance its services to Members, UNWTO will provide special consultations at the UNWTO stand 20/128.
Full programme for UNWTO ITB:
ITBProgramme
Valere Tjolle
