OfficialStatement issued by Mr. Frangialli today:
On the occasion of the General Assembly of the UNWTO, on the 9th of November 2025, His Excellency Ahmed Al-Kateeb, the Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, organized a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of this Institution. I welcome this initiative, which should have come from UNWTO itself.
I was pleased and honored to be invited to this commemoration under my capacity of Honorary Secretary General of the Organization. My successor, Taleb Rifai, also attended this prestigious event.
Over the past 35 years, I have been closely associated with the life of the World Tourism Organization. As a representative of my country, France, and subsequently a Deputy Secretary-General and later Secretary-General, I have attended 15 sessions of the General Assembly and 60 sessions of the Executive Council. I have met all the SGs who led the Organization during this period.
Among other things, I conducted in 2004, the historical conversion of UNWTO into a specialized agency of the UN. This is why it is useless, and also illegal without a change of its Statutes, to call now the Organization “UN Tourism”. However that is a small issue compared to other challenges, that may be forgotten.
A link existed already in 1975 between the former WTO and the UN, since the first one was an executive agency of the UN Development Program. But in half a century, world tourism has changed, the international arrivals passing from 500 million in 1975 to 1,500 million in 2024.
When I left UNWTO in 2009, it was a powerful and respected institution, representing world tourism in its diversity, Since then, countries that I had been able to bring in, such as Australia, Canada, Norway and UK, left the Institution. USA and New Zealand, who had promised to join, never did. The current Secretary General, Zurab Pololikashvili, even managed to expel Russia, a stupid move that no other UN institution has done.
The UNWTO is now entering a new phase of its history. A new SG will take over on the first of January, replacing the outgoing one, who has, during his two terms, technically and financially weakened the Institution. Six months ago, I called for “a change in the management”. Hopefully, the time has come.
I would have been pleased to attend during this session of the Assembly the election of Shaikha Al-Nowais, from the Arab Emirates. All of us should now contribute to her success.
I encourage all the members to build under the leadership of Shaikha Al-Awais a more transparent, honest, respectful, and friendly Organization, which will contribute to giving an impetus to the sustainable development of world tourism, not only in words, but in achievements.
Unfortunately, access to the meeting of the GA was rudely denied to me by Zurab Pololikashvili. This unexpected and unjustified move is in contradiction with the long-standing practice of inviting the former SGs to the Assembly. It is illegal, as all specialized agency bodies and those of the UN itself are open to the public.
I am convinced that no one will regret the departure of the one who managed over the past eight years to loose a part of the progress and of the prestige that the Organization had accumulated during the forty preceding ones.
Francesco Frangialli
