51st session of the UNWTO Regional Commission for Europe
Regional Commissions were established in 1975 as subsidiary organs of the General Assembly. Meetings of the six Regional Commissions (for Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Middle East and South Asia) are usually held once a year.
Each Commission elects from among its members a chairperson and deputy chairpersons for a two year term that runs from one plenary session of the Assembly to the next.
The task of the regional commissions is to enable the member states to remain in contact with one another and with the UNWTO Secretariat in the period between the sessions of the UN General Assembly. The regional commissions submit motions and proposals for action to the General Assembly.
The session was attended by representatives of the governments of the UNWTO member states, national tourism organizations and of the tourism industry, including a delegation from Poland with Maria Napiórkowska, Director of the Department of Tourism of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism.
In Sophia, the Polish government delegation put forward a proposal to hold the 52nd session of the UNWTO Regional Commission for Europe in Zabrze, Poland, on May 11-13, 2011. Zabrze is the seat of the International Documentation and Research Centre on Industrial Heritage for Tourism, founded under an agreement ratified by the UNWTO. It is the world’s second centre of this kind that operates under the auspices of the UNWTO. The focus of the session in Poland would be industrial heritage in the context of European cooperation in the field of tourism and EU experience in this regard.
The UNWTO Regional Commission for Europe welcomed the proposal of the Polish delegation. Consequently, the Department of Tourism assembled a team responsible for the logistical and technical preparations for the event. The team includes representatives of the following organizations involved in the preparation of the session: Ministry of Sport and Tourism, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Polish Tourism Organization, Katowice School of Economics, Silesian Tourism Organization, Silesian Marshal’s Office, Zabrze City Authorities and the International Documentation and Research Centre on Industrial Heritage for Tourism.