Competitiveness Committee
The Committee was established at the 95th session of the Executive Council in Belgrade, Serbia in May 2013 (CE/DEC/7(XCV). Its Rules of Procedure and the composition were approved by the Executive Council at its 96th session (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, August 2013) (CE/DEC/9(XCVI).
Since its establishment in 2013, CTC focused its work mainly on assessing the state of knowledge on the basic concept of “tourism competitiveness” and identifying its key factors. This process has also included identifying, developing and harmonizing concepts, models and operational definitions used in the tourism value chain.
(a) To support the Organization in fulfilling its normative role;
(b) To provide a dialogue mechanism between the public and private tourism stakeholders and academia to give guide in building and strengthening tourism competitiveness policies and strategies; and
(c) To build synergies and strategic alignments in the harmonization of the related activities of the Secretariat as well as other collaborating organizations/entities in order to ensure consistency and consensus in the delivery of the outputs and reinforce the official position of the Organization.
Provide UNWTO Members and other tourism stakeholders with a comprehensive and concise, operational, applicable and globally relevant conceptual framework to set the scene and contribute to establish a common ground for a clear harmonized understanding of:
i) concepts, models and operational definitions used in the tourism value chain;
ii) the quantitative and qualitative factors that explain competitiveness at the destination level which may be translated into technical guidelines facilitating a methodology for destinations to identify and evaluate their own factors of competitiveness.
As an outcome of the work of the CTC, the 22nd Session of the General Assembly held in Chengdu, China (11-16 September 2017) adopted as Recommendations key definitions. Along with these definitions the Committee also focused on identifying the key quantitative and qualitative factors for “tourism competitiveness” under two categories: i) governance, management and market dynamics, and ii) destination appeal, attractors, products and supply.
Full list of definitions adopted by the 22nd Session of the General Assembly held in Chengdu, China (11-16 September 2017)
Operational definitions used in the tourism value chain | Operational definitions on tourism types | |
| Tourism Destination | Cultural Tourism | Business Tourism (related to the Meetings Industry) |
| Destination Management / Marketing Organization | Ecotourism | Gastronomy Tourism |
| Tourism Product | Rural Tourism | Coastal, Maritime and Island Water Tourism |
| Tourism Value Chain | Adventure Tourism | Urban/City Tourism |
| Quality of a Tourism Destination | Health Tourism | Mountain Tourism |
| Innovation in Tourism | Wellness Tourism | Education Tourism |
| Competitiveness of a Tourism Destination | Medical Tourism | Sport Tourism |
As part of the work of the UNWTO Committee on Tourism and Competitiveness (CTC) in its mandate for the period 2015-2019 prepared a paper on "Tourism Policy and Strategic Planning" which delves into this factor for tourism competitiveness. This paper (available below in pdf) aims to:
- Provide UNWTO Members with a comprehensive understanding on national tourism policies and contribute to their successful formulation and implementation;
- Explore key areas which need to be addressed in tourism policy and strategic planning in order to ensure the competitiveness and sustainable development of tourism;
- Assess the key areas addressed by UNWTO Members in their tourism policies and provide case studies to illustrate key elements of a sound tourism policy; and
- Serve as a practical tool for UNWTO Members and tourism policymakers by including a set of recommendations.
- 1st Meeting: 25 August, 2013, Victoria Falls, Zambia /Zimbabwe (during 20th UN Tourism General Assembly)
- 1st Virtual Meeting: 27 March, 2014
- 2nd Virtual Meeting: 3 July, 2014
- 3rd Virtual Meeting: 22 October, 2014
- 2nd Meeting: 28 January, 2015, Madrid, Spain
- 3rd Meeting: 13 September, 2015, Medellin, Colombia (during 21st UN Tourism General Assembly)
- 4th Meeting: 22 January, 2016, Madrid, Spain
- 4th Virtual Meeting: 21 April, 2016
- 5th Meeting: 20 January, 2017, Madrid, Spain
- 5th Virtual Meeting: 2 March, 2017
- 6th Meeting: 11 September, 2017, Chengdu, China (during 22nd UN Tourism General Assembly)
- 7th Meeting: 19 January, 2018, Madrid, Spain
- 8th Meeting: 10 September 2019, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation (during 23rd UN Tourism General Assembly)
- 9th Meeting: 24 January, 2020, Madrid, Spain
- 10th Virtual Meeting: 30 July 2020
- 11th CTC Meeting: 30 November 2021, Madrid, Spain (during the 24th UN Tourism General Assembly)
- 12th Virtual Meeting: 12 September, 2022
- 13th Meeting: 17 October 2023, Samarkand, Uzbekistan (during 24th UN Tourism General Assembly)
- 14th Meeting: 23 January 2024, Madrid, Spain
- 15th Meeting (online): 17 July 2024
- 16th Meeting: 21 January 2025, Madrid, Spain
