UNWTO launches website to mobilise sector towards sustainable development goals

Harnessing the potential of tourism, which makes up 10 per cent of world GDP, to advance SDGs

UNWTO has launched an online platform to better engage the tourism sector in the advancement towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the support of Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Tourism4SDGs.org is a “co-creation space” that allows users to access a wide range of resources, add their own initiatives, findings and projects, motivate discussion and collaboration, and share content related to tourism and sustainable development.

“Tourism plays a vital role in many, if not all, of the 17 Goals”, said UNWTO secretary-general Zurab Pololikashvili. “Tourism has come of age as a cross-cutting economic activity with deep social ramifications.”

Ambassador Raymund Furrer of SECO commented: “Switzerland strongly supports this platform as it will allow a focus on the three main components of sustainable tourism: its economic, environmental and social dimensions.”

Learn, Share and Act, the three levels of interaction at Tourism4SDGs.org, aim not only to educate but also to encourage conversation and collaboration towards a sustainable tourism sector.

The platform was launched during the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development ‘Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies’ in New York this month, during an event co-hosted by UNWTO and the One Planet network.

The 17 SDGs constitute a global agenda for people, planet, prosperity and peace through partnerships. The SDGs aim to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and solve climate change by 2030.

-TTG Asia.