Trinidad and Tobago has become UNWTO’s 156th Member State because the country rejoins the Organization after 35 years. The announcement was made by the Secretary General, Taleb Rifai, on the opening of the 55th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Americas in San Jose, Costa Rica.
“We are more than happy to welcome Trinidad and Tobago back into the Organization, a rustic which was as a matter of fact a founding member of UNWTO because 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 concern within its technique to diversify the national economy and we glance forward to working with the tourism sector within the country to realize this objective”, he added.
Trinidad and Tobago is a crucial tourism player inside the Caribbean, a region where tourism is determined to continue expanding. In keeping with 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 within the region to discuss the most recent regional tourism trends, examine the programme of labor of UNWTO within the Americas for the period 2014-2015 and elect the candidate country to host World Tourism Day 2014. The Commission meeting would be complemented by a global Seminar on Tourism and New Technologies, looking into topics akin to mobile marketing, social media or the role on technology in travel facilitation.