Croatia has assumed the chairmanship of the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability during the meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in Madrid, which ends on 3 December.

Croatia will chair the Committee on Tourism and Development until the end of 2023. For the third time since 1993, when it joined UNWTO, it will also become a member of the organisation’s Executive Council, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport said in a statement on Wednesday.

The main topics which the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability deals with concern the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on current tourism trends, with special emphasis on the necessity of response that will lead to recovery of the tourism sector.

The Committee also makes recommendations for a transition to green and sustainable tourism, focusing on global initiatives such as the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative and the Glasgow Declaration with a view to adjusting the tourism sector to new trends and measures that are being undertaken to protect the environment.

The Minister of Tourism and Sport, Nikolina Brnjac, attended the plenary session on Wednesday and spoke about current trends in international tourism.

She stressed the importance of building a responsible, inclusive and sustainable tourism model at national, regional and global level, and said that Croatia was looking forward to making its contribution to this important task through the chairmanship of the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability.

On the second day, a thematic session on innovation, education and rural development will discuss ways of using input from young people, entrepreneurs and policy makers to boost sustainable tourism. The best tourism villages will be chosen as part of an initiative involving three Croatian villages – Motovun, Kastelir Labinci and Veliko Trojstvo.

At the third plenary session, Croatia will become a member of the Executive Council for the period 2021-2025, to which it was elected in Athens in June. The Executive Council consists of 35 UNWTO member states. The present chair is Chile, and vice-chairs are Senegal and Saudi Arabia.