Chinese becomes the official language of the world tourism organization of the United Nations

More and more people are learning Chinese, and its influence in the world is growing. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Spanish government have officially announced that Chinese will become the official language of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) from January 25, 2021, according to the website of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. To this end, the World Tourism Organization produced a video message of congratulations from its General Secretary.

UNWTO is the world's most influential intergovernmental international tourism organization, with 159 member countries and its headquarters in Madrid, Spain as its depository country. China joined the organization in 1983.

In November 2007, at the 17th Session of the UNWTO General Assembly, China proposed to make Chinese the official language of the Organization. The General Assembly adopted China's proposal and adopted an amendment to Article 38 of the Constitution of the World Tourism Organization, which reads: "The official languages of the Organization shall be Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

According to the constitution of UNWTO, after the amendment is approved by the meeting, more than two-thirds of the member states must go through the ratification procedure before it can enter into force. Since the adoption of the Amendment in 2007, China has done a lot of work with the UNWTO to promote the ratification of the Amendment by all member states as soon as possible and to make Chinese the official language of the UNWTO enter into force at an early date. In January 2021, the number of countries that have ratified the Amendment has reached 106, which is in line with the legal number, and the Amendment has officially come into force.

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