Trinidad and Tobago has become UNWTO’s 156th Member State as the
country rejoins the Organization after 35 years. The announcement was
made by the Secretary General, Taleb Rifai, at the opening of the 55th
Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Americas in San
Jose, Costa Rica._
“We are very happy to welcome Trinidad and Tobago back into the
Organization, a country which was in fact a founding member of UNWTO
as it pertained to the International Union of Official Travel
Organizations (IUOTO), the predecessor of UNWTO,”said Mr. Rifai.
“Trinidad and Tobago has placed tourism as a priority within its
strategy to diversify the national economy and we look forward to
working with the tourism sector in the country to achieve this
objective”, he added.
Trinidad and Tobago is an important tourism player in the Caribbean,
a region where tourism is set to continue expanding. According to
UNWTO’s long-term forecast, _Tourism Towards 2030_, by the year 2030
international tourist arrivals to the Caribbean will reach 30 million,
up from 21 million in 2012.
The 55th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Americas, held in
San Jose, Costa Rica, gathers the Members of the Organization in the
region to debate the latest regional tourism trends, examine the
programme of work of UNWTO in the Americas for the period 2014-2015
and elect the candidate country to host World Tourism Day 2014. The
Commission meeting will be complemented by an International Seminar on
Tourism and New Technologies, looking into topics such as mobile
marketing, social media or the role of technology in travel
facilitation.
