This organization, fully funded by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, was announced during the UNWTO General Assembly in Chengdu, China 2017.
Surprisingly, many high-level tourism professionals from countries around the globe, such as the U.S., who were not members of UNWTO, joined this China-funded initiative and are still found on this organization’s website.
World Tourism Alliance was launched at the Gala Dinner for the UNWTO General Assembly 2017, a day after UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili was confirmed under bizarre circumstances in Chengdu, China.
This publication had warned about China’s influence over Pololikashvili prior to the General Assembly without knowing about WTA.
Now, after this secretary general was able to manipulate the system during COVID to get elected to a second term, it can only be seen as genius how he manipulated the UN System again and without yet causing an oversight complaint from United Nations Headquarters New York to run for a third term in 2024.
At the ongoing FITUR travel show in Madrid, it became increasingly clear that China is now pushing for Zurab to win this third term to get what it has wanted since 2017: Top influence over UN-Tourism and the World’s Travel and Tourism Industry, including the Geopolitics that come with tourism.
This is all already part of a long, slow process.
In the diplomatic sphere of the WTA, Dialogue for China-Spain Tourism Cooperation, a significant international forum hosted in Madrid, the Chairman of the World Tourism Alliance (WTA), Mr. ZHANG Xu, paid a formal visit to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) headquarters on July 3, 2023, for a meeting with the UNWTO Executive Director, Ms. Zoritsa Urosevic.

The Chinese Government established the World Tourism Alliance and guided this organization to this stage quietly and without much PR. Liu Shijun is the Vice Chairman of the World Tourism Alliance.
Liu Shijun now took a high-profile Executive Director—D1 position in UN Tourism this month. The deal was done when Zurab participated in the Global Tourism Economic Forum in Beijing. No vacancy for this appointment was ever announced by UN Tourism, so it’s a clear nomination, again, bending or possibly violating UN rules.
Already manipulating PATA by delivering his keynote presentation at the 2024 UN Tourism-PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook in Guilin, China, 18- 20 October 2024, Liu now devotes his full attention to UN Tourism and its payroll.
Unlike UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, Liu has many years of experience in tourism and politics.
Shijun graduated from Beijing International Studies University and holds an EMBA from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. He served as the Director General of Marketing and International Cooperation of the China National Tourism Administration(CNTA), Secretary General of the China Tourism Association, Inspector of the General Administrative Office of CNTA, Deputy Director General of Industry Management and Standardization of CNTA, and Director of the China National Tourist Office in Sydney and New Delhi.
Liu has long been engaged in international exchange and cooperation, tourism marketing, industry regulation, tourism standardization, and other efforts. He is the International Liaison (China National Tourism Association) CNTA and the Director of the China National Tourist Office in New Delhi and Sydney. He represented CNTA in the Asian Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus.
From October 17th to 20th, 2023, at the invitation of the Secretariat of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Mr. LIU Shijun, Vice Chair & Secretary-General of the World Tourism Alliance (WTA), led a delegation to attend the 25th session of the UNWTO General Assembly and related events in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, as an observer.
This week, at FITUR in Madrid, authentic Chinese cuisine was served at a meeting at the Un-Tourism headquarters with the Chinese ambassador to Spain and the Minister of Tourism for Albania.
It appears that China will support and vote for Zurab Pololikashvili when he is expected to run for his questionable third term this year. The thought process may have all started in 2017 in Chengdu with the launch of the World Tourism Alliance, and Zurabs big friend and partner, the People’s Republic of China.