Note to Correspondents

38 MILLIONTH VISITOR will take UNITED NATIONS GUIDED TOUR;

 

Benchmark to be reached in February

 

Some time during early February, the 38 millionth visitor will take part in a United Nations guided tour.  While close tallies of visitors have been kept since the first guided tour took place in 1952, it is difficult to predict the exact day when the landmark number will be achieved.  The 37 millionth visitor toured United Nations Headquarters in early September 2001.  The United Nations is one of New York City’s most visited destinations where world politics, history, renowned architecture and art converge.

“Our guided tours not only become treasured memories for people visiting New York from around the world”, says Shashi Tharoor, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, “but they also play an important role in shaping people’s perceptions of the world body.”  The guides are the most direct link between the United Nations and the general public.  During this sixtieth anniversary year, when the United Nations is focused on renewal -– on new international threats and challenges, and ways to ensure the international system is up to the challenge of dealing with them, the tours provide answers to questions from the public about the wide range of UN activities around the world.

Ten young women began giving tours in November 1952, and traffic on the tour route grew quickly, reaching its peak in 1964 during the World Fair when over 1.2 million visitors came to the United Nations, making it one of New York’s most popular attractions.  The United Nations suspended its guided tour operation in the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack in New York, but resumed one month later as part of an effort to keep UN Headquarters accessible to the public.  Today, attendance has almost reached pre-9/11 levels of nearly 400,000 visitors a year.  Eleven per cent more visitors took tours in 2004 than did in 2003.

The Guided Tours Unit, part of the UN’s Department of Public Information, offers tours in 20 languages; more than any other tour operation in New York.  Tours are conducted every day, with few exceptions (see www.un.org/tours).  During the hour-long tour, guides present the United Nations’ history and structure, explain the role of the United Nations in current events, describe the unique collection of artworks on display throughout the tour route, and answer visitors’ questions.

These guides are the Organization’s “ambassadors to the public”, and their linguistic skills and the multitude of countries from which they come to take up this challenge adds a valuable dimension to the tour operation.  They have highly diverse academic, cultural and professional backgrounds.  All are fluent in English and at least one other language.  Many are multilingual, and some give tours in three or four languages in the course of a single day.

“This has been the most exciting and gratifying job I could have ever dreamed of”, says Karine Auvillain of France, who has been a guide since 2002.  “I often meet visitors who remember their first UN tour when they were in fifth grade and are now bringing their children or grandchildren, so that they, too, can learn about international cooperation.”

The guides receive daily in-depth briefings on the history and current activities of the United Nations.  A new group of 21 multilingual tour guides will be trained next month to supplement the existing team of 32 guides, who are gearing up for the “spring rush”, when thousands of school groups will descend upon United Nations Headquarters on their field trips.  Children and students constitute over 40 per cent of the overall number of visitors to the United Nations.

The tour costs $11.50 for adults; $8.50 for senior citizens; $7.50 for students; and $6.50 for children.

For more information, please contact:  Helene Hoedl, Guided Tours Unit, tel.:  (1) 212-963-3242, fax:  (1) 212-963 0071, e-mail:  hoedl@un.org; or e-mail: toursunhq@un.org or visit www.un.org/tours.

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