The Brazilian City of Belem in the Amazon region became the center of global tourism attention Friday after tourism ministers in the G20 country working group met. Ground zero was the Centro de Convencoes e Feiras da Amazonia.
Organized by UN Tourism, the Secretary General of this UN-affiliated agency Zurab Pololikashvili greeted the Group of 20 in Belem, Brazil.
The group of ministers includes the 19 largest world economies, plus the European Union and the African Union.
The center of discussion was sustainable tourism, cultural diversity, and cooperation between nations. WTTC CEO Julia Simpson was seen at the event, symbolizing the partnership between the public and private sectors.
The host, Brazilian Minister of Cities Jader Filho showcased for the City of Belem to be ready to host COP 30, the UN Conference on Climate Change, planned for November 2025.
His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb
If anyone knows and supports climate change and sustainable tourism, it’s the Saudi Arabia minister, His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb, the minister of tourism for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
When no country was able to deal with the threat of COVID-19 on the tourism industry and the threat due to climate change, Saudi Arabia answered emergency calls from fellow ministers around the globe and responded without asking for anything in return.
This positioned HE Al-Khateeb as a to-go person. He gained the trust of many nations’ tourism leaders in the world. It made him a global tourism leader, on top of being the focal point for never-before-seen tourism achievements in his own country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
When he took the helm as the first tourism minister, his country just entered the phase of allowing Western visitors to come in. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the country became the fastest-growing tourism economy in the world.
Of the trust and respect the minister earned when he faced problems during tourism’s most difficult challenges he was entrusted by UN Tourism member countries to take over the chairmanship of the UNWTO Executive Council.
The well-funded Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC) initiated by the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia released the latest industry-shaping Environmental Impact Research data in October 2023.
Minster Al-Khateeb is not only seen as a leader but as a uniter in global tourism. He has a high concern for tourism ethics, and sustainability, and is a fighter against the threat of climate change. He has a quiet, humbled, and down-to-earth attitude, and is well-liked and respected, but seen as the most influential tourism leader on the globe.
The Kingdom has not only spoken out against the threat of climate change and related issues, but has implemented real changes, and made real changes possible for many regions and countries on the globe. Small Island Development states had been a focus of such assistance.
A year ago Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister took part in the G20 Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Goa, India. HE Ahmed Al-Khateeb told the meeting in 2023 that the Kingdom supported India’s “Goa Tourism Plan” to sustainably grow tourism industries. He said the plan was consistent with the Kingdom’s tourism strategy.
The ministers discussed progress made at the G20 Tourism Working Group Meeting which coincided with the ministerial meeting. They reviewed key priorities for strengthening international cooperation in tourism.
“The G20 meeting and the upcoming COP30 in the capital of Pará represent unique opportunities for us to demonstrate a commitment to the global challenges facing the world, especially those related to sustainability and urban development,” the Brazilian minister Filho added today.
At a time of multiple challenges facing the world, participants agreed that with the growth of the sector, there are increasing multidimensional externalities that require rethinking tourism planning and management. Key takeaways included the urgent need for:
- A new governance built upon regular consultation and inclusion of residents, stronger coordination among all agencies in government and among national and local authorities as well as with the private sector.
- Targeted policies on gender, social inclusion, decent jobs, climate change, circularity, nature net positive, and regional development across all areas of tourism.
- Improving the measurement of the impact of tourism in its three dimensions at national and local levels – economic, social, and environmental.
Participants welcomed the recent approval by the United Nations of the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism.
Ministers represent top tourism economies
The G20 economies represent over 70% of all international tourist arrivals and receipts generated worldwide and 82% of tourism’s global GDP. In 2023, the sector accounted directly for 3.1% of the GDP of the G20 (USD 2.8 trillion), 5% of all exports of the group, and 23% of all its service exports (USD 1.3 trillion).
In 2023, the G20 economies received 900 million international tourist arrivals. In the first seven months of 2024, international tourist arrivals to the G20 reached 97% of pre-pandemic levels with countries such as Saudi Arabia (+73%), Türkiye (+15%), Spain (+11%), Japan (+7%) and Brazil (+1%) leading growth and already surpassing 2019 levels.
Speaking at the UN Tourism side event was Mr Kanan Gasimov, Head of Administration, State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan, HE Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Minister of Tourism of Canada, HE Verónica Pardo, Undersecretary of Tourism of Chile, HE Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of Tourism of India, HE Martini M. Paham, Deputy Minister for Human Resources and Institutions, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of Indonesia, HE Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism of Jamaica, HE Sultan AlMusallam, Vice Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, HE Jordi Hereu Boher, Minister of Industry and Tourism of Spain, HE Alex Lasry, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Travel & Tourism in the USA and Pedro Martel, Division Chief Environment, Rural Development, and Disaster Risk Management at Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
