Saudi Arabia

finally renounces trying to take the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

, located in Madrid since 1975, to Riyadh.

He will not present his candidacy and this has been communicated to the Foreign Ministry, as confirmed by diplomatic sources.

The country had been maneuvering for months to try to move the headquarters to its territory.

What initially seemed impossible, since there are no precedents for changes in the headquarters of the United Nations agencies and, furthermore, Saudi Arabia, is not a tourist power, began to worry the Government and Foreign Affairs.

This possibility, which would have been a blow to Spain in full recovery of tourism, forced the Government to turn its diplomatic efforts in trying to avoid it. The proposal was to be voted on at the next UNWTO assembly, to be held at the end of the year in Marrakech, and to succeed it needed the support of two thirds of the members (159 countries). Although for this candidacy to enter the agenda and vote,

Saudi Arabia had to have communicated it to the Government in a formal way,

something that has never happened.

Finally, Riyadh has thrown in the towel due

to the lack of support from the member states

that had to endorse his candidacy

.

This was hinted, in fact, two weeks ago by the Foreign Ministers, José Manuel Albares, during a ceremony in which he presented the details of the project for the new building that will house the UNWTO headquarters, in the old Congress Palace in Madrid.

"There is a bloc support from the EU and Latin America

" for the headquarters to stay in Madrid, Albares said at the time, who insisted that if there had been a request for the transfer of headquarters

"it would not be a challenge to the country, but to the multilateral system and to balance ".

The minister also insisted that Spain is a tourist powerhouse and it makes perfect sense for the headquarters to stay where it is.

The Government, in addition, announced before the pandemic that it will cede the space of the old Palacio de Congresos de Madrid to the organization so that it has a new headquarters.

The project (tender, works ...) will begin in 2022, as announced by Albares and the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Reyes Maroto.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Madrid

  • Saudi Arabia

EmpresasAlmeida promises the UNWTO that Madrid "will work to not lose the venue" and will expedite the transfer to the Palacio de Congresos

TourismThe Government, on the UNWTO headquarters: "The headquarters do not move as if they were franchises of a store"

TourismThe concern about losing the UNWTO headquarters reaches Europe: "It is unthinkable that it is not in Spain"

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