UNWTO
май-июнь, 2012
UNWTO
welcomes T20
decision to advance
visa facilitation
UNWTO welcomes the Declaration issued by the Tourism Ministers
of the G20 economies (T20) calling for priority to be given to
facilitating travel as a means to boost economic growth and create
jobs.
Preliminary findings show that of the 656 million international
tourists who visited G20 countries in 2011, 110 million needed a visa,
while millions more were deterred from traveling by the cost, waiting
time and difficulty of obtaining a visa.
Facilitating visas for these tourists, many from some of the world’s
fastest growing source markets, could create over five million
additional jobs in the G20 economies by 2015 and generate an
additional US $206 billion in international tourism receipts.
In spite of the great strides made in recent decades to facilitate
tourist travel, there are still important areas of opportunity, namely
considering the possibilities to maximize the use of information and
communication technologies in improving visa procedures. Further
opportunities include improving the delivery of information, facilitating
current processes to obtain visas, differentiated treatment to facilitate
tourist travel, instituting eVisa programmes and establishing regional
agreements for visa facilitation.
Implementing any or a combination of these can yield substantial
returns in visits, tourism receipts and jobs for the G20 economies.
Referring particularly to the dramatic situation of unemployment,
UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, called on G20 Governments
to look into enhancing visa facilitation in support of job creation. «Small
steps towards visa facilitation can result in big economic benefits. By
facilitating visas, the G20 countries stand to gain five million jobs
at a time of rampant unemployment across the world. These are in
addition to the hundreds of millions of direct and indirect jobs already
being supported every day by the sector», – said Taleb Rifai.
David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC, said: «Encouraging
freedom to travel is a simple step that Governments around the world
can take to encourage more travelers and the creation of millions
of new jobs and billions of dollars of GDP – without compromising
national security. For the first time, this report makes clear the extent
of the opportunity – it cannot be ignored».
3