Enrique Iglesias, Secretary-General of the Ibero-American Secretariat (SEGIB) and Francesco Frangialli , Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), signed (16 January 2006) a long-term collaboration agreement that paves the way for joint activities such as seminars and courses aimed at building the capacity of high-level public officials and managers in the area of tourism destination governance.
The agreement calls for UNWTO and SEGIB to work together in the dissemination and application of tourism knowledge management methodologies such as the Tourism Satellite Accounts, WTO.TedQual, and WTO.Sbest. The high-level officials that participate in the seminars will be official representatives of their tourism destinations, having received the support of the pertinent government officials from their local and national governments. Tourism destinations that are represented in these seminars will be given priority access to certain UNWTO programmes such as the WTO.Sbest Certification of Excellence in Destination Management.
UNWTO and SEGIB will also create a special committee to carry out the objectives established in the agreement. The first seminar, which focuses on the theme of Institutional Reinforcement in Tourism, will be held in Central America in the second half of March.
