World Tourism Wire Investigation: A Cease and Desist Notice from UNWTO
WorldTourismWire (WTW) is an independent publication based in the United States with the official domain www.worldtourismwire.com . As stated on the “About” page of WorldTourismWire, this publication concentrates on reporting about issues close to leading travel and tourism organizations including UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization), WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council), ETOA (European Tourism Association), PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association), ICTP (International Coalition of Tourism Partners), IIPT (International Institute for Peace through Tourism), and others. Our readers are top executives and government leaders in the private and public sector of the world tourism world.
Besides worldtourismwire.com the WorldTourismWire publication also uses other domains, including worldtourismwire.com. There is, of course, no affiliation with the United Nations World Tourism Organization – and this is clearly stated. Domain names usually mean to be descriptive of the linked or domain content. The official domain for UNWTO is unwto.org , a secondary domain owned by WorldTourismWire is worldtourismwire.com . There is a clear difference between .org and .com
It came to our attention that one of our investigative reporters sent a personal email for feedback for a follow up article on the recent UNWTO Secretary General Election to a handful of addresses. This email was meant to get a more detailed perspective from a small group of stakeholders on articles published by this wire in regards to alleged flaws in the Secretary General election process.
It is common practice that investigative work sometimes involves more creative thinking, but the intention by our reporter was not to mislead any recipient to think this was an official communication from UNWTO. She actually stated in the last sentence of this email.
One of the recipients our reporter contacted was H.E. Mohamed Sajid, Minister of Tourism for the Kingdom of Morocco. He in return alerted the UNWTO Secretariat in Madrid and Alicia Gomez, legal counsel for UNWTO, who issued a “Cease and Desist” letter to WorldTourismWire and sent it to our reporter.
In addition, Ms. Gomez emailed a “Note Verbale” to UNWTO member states, of which most of them had no idea about the personal communication between our reporter and the Minister of Tourism from Morocco. The email sent by our reporter to the Moroccan minister was attached to the “Note Verbale” UNWTO forwarded to their entire tourism minister database.
The bottom part of our email to the Maroccon Minister UNWTO attached and sent to everyone by UNWTO did not show the sentence “We understand your response is NOT an official indication” This part was left out of Ms. Gomez communication. She also left out the part our reporter signed on behalf of WorldTourismWire (WTW ) and mentioned UNWTO survey.
WorldTourismWire is committed to reporting on issues close to UNWTO and will continue to do so. We will also continue to prominently state that there is no affiliation with UNWTO or any organization we report about.
In addition, WorldTourismWire believes in fairness and transparency, and reporting about the election process has not only been an important subject to write about, but an eye-opening experience of favoritism, intrigue, and corruption when it comes to replacing one of the most respected and capable Secretary Generals the UNWTO organization has ever had. It appears to be a cesspool of backroom deals and shady handshakes, but we like to be proven wrong.
WorldTourismWire doesn’t believe in just copying and pasting press-releases and generate lip-service. The World Tourism World is too important for this.
We, therefore, invite readers to send us comments. We work hard and always love to learn from you, understand different views allowing us to report balanced. Please email [email protected]