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National tourism organization and administration

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• Douglas G. Pearce 3  

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National tourism organizations (NTOs) or administrations (NTAs) are country-level organizations established to foster or guide the development of tourism. In some countries and studies, the term NTA is reserved for national organizations having mainly administrative functions, while NTO refers to those having other national-level functions, particularly international marketing. However, the usage of these terms does vary, and international comparisons must be made carefully as these organizations take various forms, perform a range of functions, and evolve over time.

A core function is to provide policy and strategic advice to national governments. Other functions include international and domestic marketing, planning, research, development, regulation, and quality assurance (Pearce 1992 ). In some instances, all or most of these functions are undertaken by a single national organization. In other cases, not all functions are performed, or functions are distributed among two or more...

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Pearce, D. 1992 Tourist Organizations. Longman: Harlow.

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Seppälä-Esser, R., D. Airey and E. Szivas 2009 The Dependence of Tourism SMEs on NTOs: The Case of Finland. Journal of Travel Research 48:177-190.

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Wight, A. 2013 Identifying Best Practice in National Tourism Organizations: Lessons for the United Kingdom. Journal of Vacation Marketing 19:133-148.

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School of Management, Victoria University of Wellington, 19 Kelburn Parade, 6012, Wellington, New Zealand

Douglas G. Pearce

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Correspondence to Douglas G. Pearce .

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Pearce, D.G. (2016). National tourism organization and administration. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01384-8_483

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• Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific (RSOAP)
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• SUSTAINABLE TOURISM OBSERVATORIES (INSTO)

UN Tourism’s (formerly UNWTO) leadership vision acknowledges the most pressing challenges facing tourism and identifies the sector’s ability to overcome them and to drive wider positive change, including the opportunities responsible tourism offers for the advancement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UN Tourism’s members have endorsed the Management Vision of the Secretary-General which seeks to position tourism as a policy priority, lead in knowledge creation, enhance the Organization’s capacity through building new and stronger partnerships, and offer better value for existing Members while also expanding membership.

To realize the Management’s Vision, UN Tourism’s work is based around five distinct pillars:

• making tourism smarter through celebrating innovation and leading the digital transformation of the sector
• making tourism more competitive at every level through promoting investment and promoting entrepreneurship
• creating more and better jobs and providing relevant training
• building resilience and promoting safe and seamless travel;
• harnessing tourism’s unique potential to protect cultural and natural heritage and to support communities both economically and socially.

As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO (now, UN TOURISM) promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.

UN Tourism encourages the implementation of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, to maximize tourism’s socio-economic contribution while minimizing its possible negative impacts, and is committed to promoting tourism as an instrument in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), geared towards reducing poverty and fostering sustainable development worldwide.

UN Tourism generates market knowledge, promotes competitive and sustainable tourism policies and instruments, fosters tourism education and training, and works to make tourism an effective tool for development through technical assistance projects in over 100 countries around the world.

UN Tourism’s membership includes 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members and over 500 Affiliate Members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities.

source： https://www.unwto.org/who-we-are

OUR MANAGEMENT

UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili took office in January 2018. Seeking to optimize the efficiency of the Organization, the Secretary-General has introduced a new leadership structure consisting of a Deputy Secretary-General and two Executive Directors, each one overseeing key structural areas and departments of the Organization, for increased efficiency in achieving UNWTO’s goals, including adding value to members, increasing membership and serving the tourism sector as a whole.

The management team works towards a comprehensive vision for development of the tourism sector. This includes positioning tourism as a policy priority, establishing thought leadership in knowledge and policy creation, increasing resources and strengthening UNWTO’s capacity through meaningful partnerships.

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Activity Start date ongoing:  Ongoing Activity End date ongoing:  Ongoing Activity:  UNWTO takes charge of the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. UNWTOpromotes the value of tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmentalsustainability, and offers leadership and support in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.Recognizing the UNWTO’s role in promoting the potential of tourism in fighting poverty and achieving the SDGs,the UN General Assembly declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development(IY2017) and as of July 2017, UNWTO features on the DAC/OECD’s list of development assistance organizations.Tourism is included in SDG 14: ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources forsustainable development’ (besides the SDG 8: ‘Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth,full and productive employment and decent work for all and SDG 12: ‘Sustainable Consumption and Production’).Nevertheless, given its cross-cutting nature, it can advance on all 17 SDGs.• In recent years, several capacity-building activities have been carried out by UNWTO and its member states(on a bilateral or regional level) and also with the support of some of the UNWTO Sustainable TourismObservatories in various coastal countries. An example of such a successful project could be the COASTproject (http://www.un.org/depts/los/nippon/documents/Non_recurrent_e_publication_Oceans_final.pdf).• UNWTO pays special attention also to the situation of Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) and to theirchallenges related to the development of a sustainable tourism.• Given the importance attached by UNWTO to the maritime, coastal and inland water tourism, upon theproposal of the Committee on Tourism and Competitiveness, the 22nd General Assembly adopted in China, inSeptember 2017 the definition of “Maritime, coastal and inland water tourism”. The adopted definitions areavailable on this page: http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/sites/all/files/pdf/ctc_definitions_en_web.pdf. Objectives:  Promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism including maritime, coastal and inland water tourism Lead Organization/Partners :  United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Scope of Activity:  Global Websites:  http://www.un.org/depts/los/nippon/documents/Non_recurrent_e_publication_Oceans_final.pdf http://cf.cdn.unwto.org/sites/all/files/pdf/ctc_definitions_en_web.pdf Activity Start date:  Ongoing Activity End date:  Ongoing Submitted By:  Relevant Stakeholder Relevant Stakeholder:  United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

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What is JNTO ?

Official Name: Japan National Tourism Organization Established: 1964 Purpose: Committed to the development of international tourism exchanges Headquarters: 1-6-4, Yotsuya, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0004 Details of Headquarters

JNTO is involved in a broad range of activities both domestically and worldwide, to encourage international tourists from all over the world to visit Japan.

Our activities include

• Promotion of Japanese tourism
• Operation of the Tourist Information Center in Japan for international visitors
• Administration of Guide-interpreter examinations
• Publication of tourism statistics and market reports
• Providing support for international conventions and incentive events

Activities by Overseas Offices

JNTO maintains offices in key cities around the world, through which a wide range of tourism-related promotions are carried out. Each overseas office is responsible for promoting travel and tourism to Japan; one of the most important functions is to help the travel industry encourage their clients to visit Japan.

The activities of the overseas JNTO offices include

To find the JNTO office in your region, please click on the link below. JNTO Overseas Offices

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The collective strength of more than 1,000 member organizations growing the $1.3 trillion U.S. travel industry.

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To increase travel to and within the United States.

We pursue this mission by establishing travel as essential and responsible, advancing seamless and secure travel, shaping solutions to operational challenges and building a strong business. By engaging with U.S. Travel, our members shape a thriving and sustainable travel experience.

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Governing Bodies

The bodies of the World Tourism Organization are the:

General Assembly

The General Assembly is the principal gathering of the UN Tourism Organization. It meets every two years to approve the budget and programme of work and to debate topics of vital importance to the tourism sector. Every four years it elects a Secretary-General.

Regional Commissions

UN Tourism has six regional commissions-Africa, the Americas, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. The commissions meet at least once a year and are composed of all the Full Members and Associate Members from that region. Affiliate Members from the region participate as observers.

Executive Council

The Executive Council is UN Tourism's governing board, responsible for ensuring that the Organization carries out its work and adheres to its budget. It meets at least twice a year and is composed by Members elected by the General Assembly in a ratio of one for every five Full Members.

Specialized committees of UN Tourism Members advise on management and programme content. These include: the Programme and Budget Committee, the Committee on Statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account, the Committee on Tourism and Competitiveness, the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability, the World Committee on Tourism Ethics and the Committee for the Review of Applications for Affiliate Membership.

Secretariat

The Secretariat is led by Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili from Georgia, who ‎supervises 152 personnel at UN Tourism's Madrid Headquarters. Together, they are responsible ‎for implementing UN Tourism's programme of work and serving the needs of Members. ‎The Affiliate Members are supported by a full-time Director at the ‎Madrid Headquarters. The ‎Secretariat also includes a regional support office for Asia-Pacific in Nara, Japan, ‎financed by the Japanese Government and a Regional Office for the Middle East in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, opened in 2021. At its 25th General Assembly, Members agreed to open a first Regional Office for the Americas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and a Regional Office for Africa in Marrakesh, Morocco. The official languages of UN Tourism are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and ‎Spanish. ‎