Thank You, Mr. Secretary General

With the campaign for a new secretary general of the UNWTO underway, we are hearing lots about personalities, geography and - well - politics before the body meets for that election in May.  As an American, I have very strong opinions and hopes that our country may - finally - participate in this body, the closest thing the world has to a global DMO.

And, even though I've been working with destinations for 20 years, I don't think I would have learned a thing about the UNWTO if it hadn't been for its outgoing Secretary General, the Honorable Taleb Rifai.  Mr. Rifai is a man of quiet dignity, who ran for the office and took on his position out of a true commitment to the industry and ideals surrounding tourism.  I probably wouldn't even have met him at all had it not been for him coming up to me at a conference in the Caribbean and introducing himself - simply because our speaker bios in the program showed that we both got degrees from the same University (Go Quakers)!  This was at the beginning of his tenure.

And so I became acquainted with not only the man, but his team, and their agenda.  The UN is big and bureaucratic for sure, and Americans are often skeptical of its purpose, effectiveness and reach.  But for all of that bureaucracy, Secretary General Rifai's long list of accomplishments includes two projects in particular that will shine on long after he leaves office this spring.

First, with the challenges of Global Warming and Sustainable Tourism, the organization moved to support the idea of green growth.  The importance of this movement cannot be overstated:  As the tourism industry responds in a large measure defensively to the developments related to global warming and sustainability, here was the world's largest tourism organization putting out studies, plans and strategies designed to grow the industry by supporting innovation in the areas of green tourism and sustainability.  Their argument that green growth equals economic growth from tourism is a model that every destination should adopt.  If tourism is to continue to thrive and grow into this century, it will be because of strategies like those the UNWTO put forward in the last few years under Secretary Rifai's tenure.  You can see more about those programs at the UNWTO website here.

The second initiative is simply fantastic:  The Silk Road Programme.  Yes, the UNWTO has created both a travel product and a multi-national DMO!  The Silk Road reaches back into the dawn of the history of international trade to the days of explorers like Marco Polo. It connects 33 nations from Spain in the west to Indonesia and Japan in the east.  This is a mammoth undertaking, and the team that the Secretary assembled has handled everything from the difficult politics of getting all of these nations together and funding the project (a giant lift all by itself) to the branding and marketing of the Silk Road as a tourism product.  This remarkable moment in tourism continues to develop, and you can learn more about it here.

Both of these initiatives are extremely important to tourism, and really deserve far more than the short paragraph I have given each.  It's safe to say neither would have happened if it had not been for the quiet and persistant leadership of Mr. Rifai. 

I consider my career and work with destination marketing organizations worldwide a gift.  Seeing the industry through the UNWTO and its global reach has given me an incredible additional perspective on my work.  And watching those two herculean initiatives - alone - roll out and evolve has been amazing.  And it's for all of the above, along with his belief and support for our industry I say, "Thank You, Mr. Secretary General."