Mzembi to Pololikashvili on the Russian Suspension from UNWTO

A brave UNWTO Secretary-General Pololikashvili yesterday called for Russia to be removed as a member of the World Tourism Organization, although he may be accused of a conflict of interest given the centrality of his native country Georgia getting tangled into the current Ukraine conflict.

WTN congratulated UNWTO yesterday for reacting timely to this crisis as suggested by the World Tourism Network when calling earlier for industry leaders to speak with a United Voice and Smart Guidance for World Peace.

As suggested by World Tourism Network (WTN), UNWTO should continue focusing also on communicating that tourism is a  Guardian of World Peace.

Of course, UNWTO members are governments represented by ministers of tourism. The UNWTO is an agency of public diplomacy and should leverage people-to-people engagement or citizen diplomacy to reign in Russia. 

World Tourism Network VP Walter Mzembi, who was a candidate for UNWTO Secretary-General in 2018 said:

• Before the suspension, UNWTO should appoint a peace mission to Russia to plead with the administration in Russia and see the necessity of peace as an underwriter of successful travel and tourism. This may be a better approach instead of taking a divisive position, which could split the organization on opinion and eventually physically too.
• Secondly, suspension of a member is a political decision that may not necessarily rest with Tourism Ministers and will require broader consultation with home governments. At the same time UNWTO itself is part of the UN Cabinet. It cannot act unilaterally while Russia itself sits right there in the Security Council with veto power.

UNWTO Secretary-General Pololikashville must designate a special envoy to handle and balance this assignment and recuse himself personally because of what he may be otherwise accused of – a conflict of interest.

Mzembi’s advice to Pololikashville is: Follow due process rules and recuse yourself.

WTN agrees with the principle of sanctioning an errant member State but is questioning the process, the methodology, and whether current UNWTO statutes speak to political censure.

If they are silent then it will bring the mover under the spotlight, rather become part of concurrent UN action instead of plunging the UNWTO into political space.

A prominent WTN Board member, Professor Geoffrey Lipman, who was an assistant Secretary-General of UNWTO had this to add:

Lipman said from his home in Brussels, Belgium:

Another approach would be time for the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to rejoin UNWTO and help apply punitive tourism sanctions.

The World Tourism Network, as a US-headquartered entity may want to lobby for this with the Secretary of State and the US Secretary of Commerce.

Tourism is probably 5-10% of the Russian economy.