Note to Correspondents

FREE UNITED NATIONS GUIDED TOURS ON SUNDAYS IN JUNE

IN CONTEXT OF UNITED NATIONS SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY

In celebration of its 60^th anniversary, the United Nations is offering free guided tours on all Sundays in June, the month that the Charter was signed in San Francisco in 1945.  These tours will be hosted on 5, 12, 19, and 26 June, the last falling on the precise anniversary of the Charter’s signing.  The free 30-minute lecture tour offered during this promotion will include visits to the Security Council Chamber and the General Assembly Hall, as well as selected artworks on display on the tour route. 

“Thanks to a grant from the United Nations Foundation, we are opening our doors to our fellow New Yorkers to acknowledge their hospitality over the decades”, says Shashi Tharoor, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information.  “We hope to remind New Yorkers, and their many international guests, of the special relationship that the city has with the UN.  Its presence here contributes to New York City’s status as the capital of the world.”

Organised by the Department of Public Information’s Outreach Division, United Nations guided tours are the most direct link between the United Nations and the general public.  Each day (including weekends, except in January and February), 60 multilingual guides play an important role in shaping the public’s perceptions of the world body.  During this 60^th 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 task of dealing with them -- the tours provide information about the wide range of UN activities around the world and, equally importantly, reflect back to the Organisation concerns and questions expressed by a highly articulate and engaged visiting public.

It is hoped that New Yorkers, in particular, will take this opportunity to visit United Nations Headquarters, which is one of the city’s premier tourist destinations, where world politics, history, renowned architecture and art converge.  “When walking through the UN, you can feel the history that has been made inside these walls.  And it is right in the heart of New York City”, says Kathy Bushkin, Executive Vice-President of the United Nations Foundation.  “We are pleased to provide this opportunity to the public, so that they can be a part of UN history and better understand this centre of world affairs.”

The United Nations Foundation is funding the free guided tours, which are open to the general public on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The Foundation is also subsidizing admissions for New York City public schools in the fall.  Created in 1998 with a $1 billion gift from entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner, the United Nations Foundation supports United Nations causes and activities through grants and by building innovative public-private partnerships.  The Foundation works to broaden support for the United Nations and global cooperation through education, advocacy and public outreach.

The United Nations Guided Tours Unit offers tours in 20 languages, more than any other tour operation in New York.  Tours are conducted daily, with a few exceptions (see www.un.org/tours), from 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends.  Since the first tour took place in November 1952, over 38 million visitors have been guided through United Nations Headquarters.  Traffic on the tour route reached its peak in 1964 during the World Fair with over 1.2 million visitors, making the United Nations one of the city’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 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.

For more information, please contact:  Way Gomez, Public Relations Section, tel:  1 212-963-7721, fax:  1 212-963-0071, e-mail:  GOMEZL@un.org; or e-mail: toursunhq@un.org or visit www.un.org/tours.

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