Eduardo González
The Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, has congratulated Emirati Shaikha Al Nowais on her nomination as the new Secretary-General of UN Tourism for the 2026-2029 term.
Al Nowais defeated Greek Harry Theoharis in the runoff election this Friday, with 24 votes in favor and eleven against. This vote took place this Friday during the 123rd meeting of the UN Tourism Executive Council, held at the Royal Site of San Ildefonso in La Granja (Segovia), where Spain was represented by Hereu.
Al Nowais, whose appointment must be ratified at the end of the year by the organization’s General Assembly in Saudi Arabia, needed two rounds to win the vote. In the first round, the Spanish delegation voted for the Mexican candidate, Gloria Guevara, while in the second round, Spain voted for the Emirati.
Shaikha Al Nowais will succeed Georgian Zurab Pololikashvili, after two consecutive terms at the helm of this Madrid-based organization. If her appointment is ratified in November, she will be the first woman to lead this organization since its founding in 1975.
“This Executive Committee has a new candidate, the first woman to be Secretary General,” Hereu told the press after the vote. Al Nowais, he continued, “has received great support,” which demonstrates that “many countries and many regions have identified” with her candidacy.
“The four candidates were of the highest quality,” but “I believe that she expresses, from the United Arab Emirates, a commitment to the development of many regions of the world, especially those where the impact of tourism could be greatest,” he stated.
This is the case of “continents such as Africa and regions of the Americas and Asia, which are poised to have a major impact on tourism in the future,” because “tourism is a major lever for global development,” he added.
The Executive Council in La Granja was attended by around 300 attendees from more than thirty countries. According to the Ministry, the UN Tourism meeting took place at a particularly positive time for international tourism, which, despite geopolitical and tariff uncertainties, has managed to almost completely recover pre-pandemic tourist flows.
Furthermore, the UN agency—which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year—expects international tourist arrivals to grow between three and five percent in 2025 compared to the previous year. “With these numbers, tourism reaffirms itself as one of the major global industries and a driver of growth for the world economy,” the Ministry added.
