WorldTourismWire received an enormous feedback and many questions were raised in regards to UNWTO, the Secretariat and of course the new Secretary General Election.

Some questions WorldTourismWire readers had originated from members of an anonymous online chat room created with no other interest than the welfare of UNWTO. This is according to the moderator of this chat-room. He called UNWTO an organization guided on the outside but now shoddy and rusted inside.

When this group was started, Ideas were exchanged and debated. Eye-opening facts were revealed. Questions were raised by the announcement of the health condition of the UNWTO Secretary-General last year.

When explaining it further the chat room moderate said: “This is the voice of an anonymous group of UNWTO stakeholders, where no one knows who is who after over a year of activity. Detached from any particular influence, the Group wants only to safeguard the Organisation from the ever increasing drift of its Secretariat into politicization,  misadministration, and mismanagement.’

The moderator went on to say:”  In recent years UNWTO seems to have become an organization at the service of its Secretariat (Secretary-General and a small entourage). An apparatus of cheap propaganda focused on promoting the image of its Secretary-General while claiming to defend lofty ideals of global sustainable tourism. Our goal is to put the Secretariat, thus the Organization, back on track. We believe that one way of doing so could be by airing some questions that may raise the awareness of UNWTO and staff members alike.”

“The aim is not to do any harm. At the contrary, it is to protect the important achievements of this Secretary-General from reckless micro-management and abuse of authority.”

Here is a sample of two questions:
1)Why did the Director of such an important department as the Programme of Statistics resign? More importantly, why was he summarily dismissed after he resigned and just a few days before his resignation entered into effect? Why was the  Executive Council not informed?

2) Why did the Legal Counsel of the Organization quit after many years of loyal service? What ethical issues over what questions triggered his resignation.To make it clear WorldTourismWire and this author

To make it clear WorldTourismWire and this author have no part in this chatroom, and we’re not planning to join the chat but are willing to listen. We may sometines relate relevant questions to UNWTO spokespersons or WorldTourismWire readers for a response or clarification.

WorldTourismWire asked the two sample questions and received this response from UNWTO:

Although all questions raised have their due clarifications, UNWTO will not make any public comments on these as they relate to either subjects of personal nature (issues of UNWTO Staff Members)  which are legally protected by confidentially regulations and principles or issues which have been discussed in their rightful place by UNWTO Member States, i.e. the UNWTO statutory meetings in due time (the report of the UN Joint Inspection Unit mentioned was presented and discussed at the UNWTO 98^th Executive Council as shown by the public link to the UNWTO web page, the same way that the Executive Council was informed  of the changes in the UNWTO Statistics Programme).

More to come on WorldTourismWire.
Many more questions have been asked about the Internal Governance chapter (click here)
You may wish to take a look at the Internal Governance chapter in the link above. You may find interesting, inter alia, how top-heavy the Secretariat is in comparison with sister UN agencies. The references to how salaries of Executive Directors have been paid may be of interest according to members of the chatroom.

The forum moderator wondered how many UNWTO members studied the report of the UN inspectors a few years ago.

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