UNWTO strengthens cooperation with Austria

Austria strengthens its leadership in sustainable tourism and international cooperation.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Austria have discussed opportunities to strengthen cooperation in sustainable tourism, statistics and development.

UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili highlighted Austria’s important role in advancing sustainable tourism during high-level talks in Vienna. Highlights of the talks included the inclusion of six Austrian villages in the UNWTO’s “Best Tourism Villages Programme” and the Tyrol region becoming one of the newest members of the “International Sustainable Tourism Observatory Network” (INSTO).

Austria’s leadership in statistics

Secretary-General Pololikashvili’s meeting with Susanne Kraus-Winkler, Secretary-General for Tourism, highlighted Austria’s critical leadership as co-chair of the Statistics Committee. In particular, the work on the implementation of the Statistical Framework for Measuring Tourism Sustainability (SF-MST), approved this year by the United Nations Statistical Commission, was mentioned. This framework provides the concepts, definitions and structures needed to measure the economic, social and environmental impacts and dependencies of tourism.

Secretary-General Pololikashvili made the following statements on the subject:

“A leading tourism destination like Austria can play an important role in advancing global tourism issues such as the SF-MST. At the same time, with the help of such measurement tools, we can ensure that tourism is a driver of sustainable and inclusive development. UNWTO appreciates Austria’s clear commitment to building a sustainable and resilient tourism future.”

Another important topic of the talks between UNWTO and Austria was the use of Austrian expertise to advance development cooperation in tourism. In the meetings held with the Director of Foreign Economic Relations, Ambassador Harald Stranzl, the potential to use Austria’s know-how and technical capacity in sustainable tourism projects at the global level was assessed.

According to the latest UNWTO data, Austria ranked 10th globally, hosting 30.9 million international tourists in 2023. In the same year, it generated 22.8 billion euros in international tourism revenues, an increase of 11% compared to 2019 before the pandemic.

Austria's leadership in sustainable tourism continues to be a model at regional and global levels.