China News Service, February 20. According to the website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, recently, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Spanish government officially notified that Chinese has officially become the official language of UNWTO from January 25, 2021.

UNWTO specially produced a video about Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili to show his congratulations.

  The news pointed out that UNWTO is the world's most influential intergovernmental international tourism organization. It currently has 159 member states, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, and Spain is its depositary.

China joined the organization in 1983.

In November 2007, at the 17th session of the UNWTO General Assembly, China proposed to include Chinese as the official language of the organization.

The General Assembly adopted the Chinese proposal and passed an amendment to Article 38 of the "World Tourism Organization Constitution", that is, "The official languages ​​of the organization are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish".

According to the UNWTO statutes, after the amendment is passed by the general assembly, more than two-thirds of the member states must complete the approval procedures before it can take effect.

Since the passage of the amendment in 2007, China has done a lot of work in cooperation with UNWTO in order to promote member states to fulfill the approval procedures as soon as possible and make Chinese the official language of UNWTO take effect as soon as possible.

In January 2021, 106 countries have approved the amendment, which meets the statutory number, and the amendment has formally entered into force.

  Language is a tool for the expression of human concepts and thoughts and an important carrier of culture.

With the continuous enhancement of my country's comprehensive national strength, the international influence of Chinese continues to expand, and Chinese is more widely recognized in the international community.

Chinese has become the official language of UNWTO, which has enhanced the integrity and authority of UNWTO as a specialized agency of the United Nations, and improved the status and proportion of Chinese in international organizations. This is conducive to my country's more active role in global international tourism affairs. To share China’s tourism development experience and opportunities, to achieve the goal of improving the country’s cultural soft power, promoting the building of a socialist cultural power, and making positive contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.