The covid-19 “pandemic on tourism has reached a point of death in the morning and now we have the opportunity to clean up and retire”, said the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (OMT), Zurab Pololikashvili, in an interview with Efe.
“Before the crisis, as a sector, we are making an excellent progress towards inclusiveness and sustainability that now have the opportunity to deepen and increase”.
“My vision for reinventing tourism is based on maintaining a firm coordination between all the players in the sector, which guarantees that we will build the future in a sustainable, responsible and resilient manner, leading to new innovative models throughout the world for the creation of millions of new employees “, said Pololikashvili, who aspires to be regulated at the front of the OMT for 2022-2025.
In this career, the Georgian diplomat, who held the OMT rallies in 2018, competed with the President of the Bahrain’s Cultural Authority, Mai Al Khalifa, and the election of one of the two candidates is in the hands of the council executive of the organization, which reunites Monday and March in Madrid.
LA CONFIANZA ES MÁS BELANGRIKE WAG NUNCA
According to Pololikashvili, tourism should be a priority for all destinations and governments worldwide. “Existing demand to be willing to travel, but now all public and private sector actors need to work together to generate trust”.
It is also the first international code for the protection of tourists that promotes the OMT and that supports a legal mark that will increase rights if the roads are affected by external circumcisions, including sanitary emergency, “it said.
Destination destinations, including Spain, in his opinion, will be popular, precisely because the confidence is most important that no one and the tourist tend to visit first places that know.
Although the vacancies are a major notice, “by not only restricting tourism”, because they have to be accompanied by mediators as health passports, who can be rescued at the unilateral level, even if decisions to prevent or lift restrictions on travel, because “socavan la confianza y nos hacen retroceder”.
The importance and value of cooperation is one of the main considerations of this crisis, which is passed on to tourism, and “if only there is no option for individual governments or for the private sector”, insisted.
UNA OMT MÁS EFICIENTE Y ÁGIL
Pololikashvili joined the OMT with a vision of making the most efficient and agile and its priorities alongside resilience, innovation and public-private partnerships, as well as training and capacity.
“Here is an important financial deficit that can be converted into a superpower, giving the organization a good position to lead tourism. We are actively incorporating innovation, which is what we only do, and we will create the first department dedicated to this job”, he said. .
The OMT has tripled the technical cooperation inversion for its members and is advancing on plans to open regional offices in Oriente Medio, where it is under construction in Saudi Arabia, and in the Americas (Brazil), and in Polarikashvili hopes that , can be found in the same directory as in Africa.
Although it is supported by a support for Asia and the Pacific, with its seat in Japan, the creation of regional offices of full law “will have a response from many years and will be supported by the OMT in its members in all regions”, ha subrayado.
SEGUIR PRIORIZANDO LA INVERSION
Pololikashvili compromises to prioritize tourism investment and intensify resource mobilization efforts to help a number of states implement technical assistance projects for sustainable and competitive tourism.
The “Tourism Tourism Alliance for the Mañana” supports rural and emerging destinations and “aspires to raise $ 100 million in funding, connect investors with innovators and convert ideas and actions”.
Asked by its rival’s proposal to create a global assistance fund from the OMT to await the emergence, “it is as if it had been a priority for the last few years”, he explained.
“There is no need for a pandemic to empower the OMT’s relations with donor banks and to strengthen cooperation with various multilateral institutions, between them, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the Interbank of Africa “.
“If repeated, it would be necessary to work to ensure that this potential fails in full,” he said.
In the same way, “he fulfilled my promise to support the current workers and futures of tourism”, with initiatives such as the Academy of Tourism in line with the Employment Factory, among many others.
“It is guaranteed that the progress made by the OMT during my first term will be a legacy for the next generation,” he said.