G20 Tourism Ministers urge green transformation for sustainable recovery

1. UNWTO recommendations for the Transition to a Green Travel and Tourism Economy, have been developed in partnership with the G20 Tourism Working Group.
2. Sustainable recovery has been identified as a key resource for advancing progress in the world’s leading economies.
3. G20 priorities include safe mobility, supporting tourism jobs and businesses, building resilience against future shocks, and advancing the green transformation.

Upon assuming Presidency of the G20, Italy has drawn on UNWTO data to highlight the impact the pandemic has had on tourist numbers globally and how this translates into lost jobs and revenues, as well as lost opportunities for social development.

Addressing the meeting, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, stressed the continued need for coordination at the very highest level, in order to advance “common, harmonized criteria for the easing of travel restrictions, and for increased investment in systems that support safe travel, including testing on departure and on arrival.”

With the crisis far from over, the Secretary-General welcomed the G20 Rome Guidelines for the Future of Tourism and called for “schemes aimed at supporting the survival of tourism jobs and businesses to be sustained and, wherever possible, expanded, especially as millions of livelihoods continue to be at risk”.