THE SECRETARY GENERAL,

    In the exercise of the powers conferred upon him by Articles 108 and 112 of the Charter and Articles 4, 8, and 12 of the General Standards to Govern the Operations of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, and

CONSIDERING:

    That in Resolution AG/RES. 1 (XX-E/94), the General Assembly adopted the sustainable development of tourism as one of the cooperation priorities of the OAS system and of the Council for Integral Development ("CIDI");

    That in the Plan of Action of the 1994 Miami Summit of the Americas, the Heads of State and Government agreed to undertake initiatives to stimulate tourism in the Hemisphere;

    That in the Declaration of Montrouis (AG/DEC. 8 (XXV-O/95), the General Assembly decided to support and promote OAS technical cooperation on matters related to the development of tourism;

    That the Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean and Central American Member States, in recent regional meetings, have recognized the strengthening of tourism as a priority for economic development in those regions;

    That at its twenty-sixth Regular Session, the General Assembly resolved to support the Secretary General's proposal to establish an Inter-Sectoral Unit for Tourism, and approved funding in the Second Year of the 1996-97 Biennium for that Unit.

RESOLVES:

I. CREATION OF THE INTER-SECTORAL UNIT FOR TOURISM

1. The Inter-Sectoral Unit for Tourism ("ISUT" or the "Unit") is hereby created as a dependency of the Office of the Secretary General and as the principal entity within the General Secretariat responsible for matters directly related to Tourism and its development in the Hemisphere.

II. RESPONSIBILITIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE INTER-SECTORAL UNIT FOR TOURISM

    The Inter-Sectoral Unit for Tourism shall have the following functions and responsibilities:

1. To provide technical and administrative support to the Inter-American Travel Congress ("IATC"), the principal Inter-American forum for formulating hemispheric tourism policy, by: (a) assisting in the identification of collective tourism problems; (b) developing solutions to those problems; (c) analyzing their political, economic, and social consequences; (d) identifying and facilitating the access of Member States to innovative policy options that have been tried and tested elsewhere in the world; and (e) proposing priorities for action;

2. To provide technical and administrative support in the area of sustainable and integral tourism development to the General Assembly, the Permanent Council, the Inter-American Council for Integral Development ("CIDI"), the Permanent Executive Committee of CIDI ("CEPCIDI"), and other agencies, organs, and entities of the Organization, and to carry out their mandates as required;

3. To provide advice and technical support to other sectors of the General Secretariat engaged in activities related to sustainable and integral tourism development;

4. To provide technical and administrative support in the area of its competence to hemispheric and subregional conferences, to workshops and seminars;

5. To formulate, evaluate, and undertake execution of selective technical cooperation projects consistent with its expertise and resources and promote practical arrangements for more fruitful public/private sector cooperation;

6. To facilitate the exchange of information related to sustainable and integral tourism development in the region by providing access to data bases and utilizing modern electronic methods to supplement traditional information systems;

7. Conduct research and analysis of trends and forward-looking issues in the tourism sector to facilitate more rapid adaption of national policies and creative responses to the rapidly changing tourism industry, including, tourism facilitation measures, methodologies for measuring tourism flows, environmental impact of tourism, etc.

8. To collaborate and cooperate with other public international organizations, subregional, regional, and international tourism organizations, and non-governmental organizations working in its area of competence and the private sector.

9. Where a technical project or program which is predominantly focussed in the area of one of the General Secretariat's Units or Offices (the "first Unit") contains a distinct component related to the area of another Unit that is specialized in the subject of that distinct component (the "second Unit"), responsibility for implementation of that component shall be upon the second Unit in coordination with the first Unit.

III. BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE UNIT

1. The Unit is a dependency of the Office of the Secretary General. The chief of the Unit is its Director, who is directly responsible to the Chief of Staff of the Secretary General.

2. The Director administers, coordinates, and has technical responsibility for the Unit's work product and personnel. The Director is responsible for establishing an internal Unit structure in accordance with applicable norms regarding personnel, program-budget, and related matters, which will enable the Unit to function responsively and properly in fulfilling its responsibilities and mandates.

IV. TRANSITION AND COORDINATION WITH THE UNIT FOR SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT

1. Those staff members of the former Department of Regional Development and Environment ("DRDE") who are not assigned to the Unit for Sustainable Development and Environment ("USDE") or other dependencies of the Organization are hereby transferred to the Inter-Sectoral Unit for Tourism.

2. The Unit is responsible for all current DRDE programs, projects, and distinct project components directly related to tourism. For this purpose, tourism includes activities whose viability or justification depends on foreign or national tourism.

3. The Unit shall cooperate and coordinate its efforts with USDE.

4. All funds allocated to the DRDE under the 1996 Program-Budget in connection with all personnel and items transferred to the Tourism Unit in Paragraphs IV,1 and IV,2, above, are hereby transferred to the Tourism Unit. Likewise, all funds assigned to the DRDE pertaining to contracts, agreements, and/or Memoranda of Understanding with collaborating institutions under which the DRDE has been serving as the executing agency for externally funded activities on behalf of the General Secretariat, except for those funds determined, in consultation with the Chief of Staff, to be intended to fund environment-related programs, projects, distinct project components, and other activities, are hereby transferred to the Tourism Unit.

5. Any disputes regarding the area of competence of the Inter-Sectoral Unit for Tourism in relation to other areas of the General Secretariat shall be resolved definitively by the Secretary General.

V. AMENDMENTS AND REPEALS

    This Executive Order supersedes all present norms, regulations and practices of the General Secretariat to the contrary.

VI. EFFECT

    This Executive Order shall take effect on the date on which it is signed.

Date: June 28, 1996
Original: English