Tourism in United Nations’ policies

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth - is a global agreement adopted at the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Summit held in New York in 2015. The Agenda establishes a universal and comprehensive action programme for all countries and their national politics. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted as a framework to eradicate poverty, tackle inequality and injustice as well as improve climate change by 2030.

The work of the World Tourism Organization of the UN (UNWTO), of which the Republic of Croatia has been a member since 1993, is also guided by these goals. The Republic of Croatia is a member of UNWTO's Executive Council (2021 - 2025) and of the Committee on Associate Membership of the UNWTO (2021-2023), and it also presides the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability (2021-2023). The UNWTO 2022- 2023 Programme of Work sets the following priorities: smarter tourism - innovations and digital transformation; green investments and entrepreneurship, creating more and better jobs: education and employment; building resilience, encouraging market intelligence and facilitating travels; protection of heritage: social, cultural and ecological sustainability.

The One Planet network was established to implement the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP). One of its six programmes is the Sustainable tourism programme that has been active since 2015 and is run by UNWTO. It acts as an open partnership and all states, including shareholders and organisations, are invited to join and actively participate in the programme. Through the participation of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, The Republic of Croatia is an active member of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee - MAC of the Programme. The Programme seeks to strengthen sustainable consumption and production in tourism policies and practices to address the challenges of pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change. The programme supports the transition to a circular economy as a path towards development of sustainable tourism. The One Planet vision for a responsible recovery of the tourism sector was created in response to the 2020 crisis caused by the pandemic.

The Glasgow Declaration: a commitment to a decade of climate action in tourism  was adopted at the 2021 UN COP26. The Declaration provides guidelines for a 50 % reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 and for the achievement of net zero emission as soon as possible and before 2050. The Glasgow Declaration signatories agree on 5 common ways to ensure coherence of climate measures throughout the tourism sector: Measure, Decarbonise, Regenerate, Collaborate, Finance.

The Recommendations for the Transition to a Green Travel and Tourism Economy were adopted at the 2021 G20 Tourism Ministers' Meeting in Italy.