My Internship at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (Madrid, Spain)

Hello future interns,

my name is Laura Spranaitytė and I’ve been a part of the UNWTO for three months. I started working there in November 2014, in the Regional Programme for Europe. This internship was a great professional experience, especially when working in the tourism sector has been my dream since middle school. The colleagues in the department were amazing, and it is safe to say that I made a lot of friends there. We used to tell each other on occasion that we were the best and funniest department in all of UNWTO. My input to every task was valued greatly, and it gave me a strong stimulus to continue working hard and doing the best I can. And in such encouraging environment it was a pleasure to do so.

Since I am still a student, and I’ve put a lot of things on hold so I could participate in this internship, I was eager to engage in every activity that was being held in the department. My tasks included upgrading the Organisation’s database by filling it with relevant content on the member states, preparing information for delegation meetings and tracking newest tourism trends and events. Along with that I was a part of organizing several seminars/conferences, the topics ranging from tourism sector investments to mobile technologies. I also prepared the topic and a programme for the annual Regional Commission for Europe seminar, which will take place in Haifa, Israel in May.

Aside from that, I was an active member of the European Region team in terms of participating in different meetings and other activities. For example, I participated in a meeting with the Lithuanian delegation from the ministry of Economy and the Tourism Department. Another very interesting event was an international tourism fair FITUR, where I was working at the UNWTO stand. I also did some volunteer work in the Africa Investment Forum (INVESTOUR), which was held on the occasion of FITUR.

In conclusion, my time in Madrid was very fruitful and educational. I learned to work in an organisation which is very diverse – it combines tourism, culture, economics, politics, diplomacy and many other fields. Since I am a kind of person that is interested in pretty much everything, the tourism sector is a perfect field of study and work for me. And I can firmly say, that in this internship I gained  a lot of knowledge on the tourism infrastructure from all the different angles.  In my future I want to do something similar to this experience. I wish to stay in Lithuania and work in its tourism sector and try to improve it as much as possible since it is very important not only economically and politically, but also is the key to preserve and represent our culture. And I think that by tracking tourism trends and adopting best practices Lithuanian tourism sector can reach its new highs.

Laura Spranaitytė