The Diplomat
Saudi Arabia has informed the Spanish government of its refusal to try to host the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), currently in Madrid, foreign sources told The Diplomat yesterday.
According to the aforementioned sources, the Saudi Government has informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of its decision to back out of its initial intention to present Riyadh’s candidacy during the next UNWTO General Assembly, to be held from November 30 to December 3 in Marrakech (Morocco).
The Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Community of Madrid, Marta Rivera de la Cruz, yesterday expressed their satisfaction with the Saudi Arabians’ renunciation.
The UNWTO, of which Spain is a founding member, has been headquartered in Madrid since its creation in 1975. For this reason, and after being informed of Saudi Arabia’s intention to host the organization’s headquarters, Pedro Sánchez’s government not only expressed its regret to the Saudi Embassy for a decision it considered unfriendly, but also launched an extensive diplomatic campaign to make member countries understand that it is much more convenient for the organization to remain in Madrid, the capital of a country with a great experience in tourism and which has been the headquarters of the organization since its creation.
As part of the Executive’s efforts to counter Saudi Arabia’s attempts, on September 15 the Government publicly presented the progress of the project for the new UNWTO headquarters in Madrid’s Congress Palace. The event was attended by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto; the UNWTO Secretary General, Zurab Pololikashvili; and the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. In the event, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured the press that there was “no request” from Saudi Arabia to take over the headquarters and warned that “if there were a request to move the UNWTO headquarters, it would not only be a challenge to the host country, it would be a challenge to the multilateral system, to the balance of the United Nations”.
“The headquarters of international organizations are not located capriciously, they respond to countries especially committed to the subject of that headquarters,” he said. “Madrid, Spain, Europe, are the center of world tourism, that is evident, and the headquarters cannot be moved as if they were franchises of a store and a baseball team,” added Albares, who assured that, in any case, Spain has the “block support of the EU, Latin America and all the other countries” that he had pressed.
The World Tourism Organization belongs since 2003 to the United Nations family as a specialized agency -specifically to the Economic and Social Council of the UN-, thanks, in good part, to the impulse exerted by Spain and other countries. The UNWTO Secretariat General has at no time expressed its position on Riyadh’s intentions and has insisted that any decision on the possible change of headquarters is the exclusive responsibility of the General Assembly. To secure the UNWTO headquarters, Saudi Arabia would have needed the support of at least 106 of the 159 member states (as opposed to the 193 countries of the UN). Curiously, among the non-member states there are some of the world’s main tourist emitters, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries, as well as Ireland and Belgium.
At the same event on September 15, Minister Maroto announced that the new headquarters could be available in 2024. The building, located opposite the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, will have a total built area of almost 8,000 square meters, and will consist of a basement for facilities and parking with capacity for more than 30 cars, a mezzanine with a cafeteria and a multi-purpose exhibition hall, and three floors for offices, offices and meeting rooms, including an auditorium of more than 500 square meters with translation booths.
