US mulls rejoining UN tourism body to create more jobs

Washington:  The US is exploring the possibility of rejoining the UN tourism body to create jobs for Americans and help promote tourist destinations in the country, the State Department said.

The US made its intention to be back in the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on Monday during at the agency's executive council meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, reports Efe news.

Emma Doyle, the White House Principal Deputy Chief of Staff, led the US delegation at the 110th session of the executive council of the global body that promotes responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism across its member states.

"The US will now begin negotiations with the UNWTO and its member states to seek terms to rejoin that are advantageous to the US and will maximize benefits to the American tourism sector," the Department said in a statement.

It said that President Donald Trump's administration believes that the UNWTO "offers great potential to fuel growth in that sector, create new jobs for Americans, and highlight the unmatched range and quality of US tourist destinations".

In its statement posted on its website, the UN agency said it welcomed the presence of the US at the meeting in Baku as "recognition of tourism's growing relevance to global economic growth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as an endorsement of UNWTO's leadership".

The UNWTO said the US was currently "one of the world's biggest tourism markets, both as a destination and as a source of international tourists".

According to the agency, the US received over 60 million tourists in 2018 while the tourism sector grew by 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2019 as compared to the same period last year.