UN Tourism contracts and grades: staff and service contracts explained

UN Tourism, formerly branded as UNWTO, is a United Nations specialized agency, but it has its own Staff Regulations and recruitment site. Its staff grades follow the UN common-system structure. Its service contractors and experts are outside that staff framework.

Most staff work at headquarters in Madrid. Newer offices and project locations may use different contractual arrangements, so the duty station and personnel category need to be read together.

Staff appointments and non-staff personnel

UN Tourism Staff Regulations provide for fixed-term and permanent appointments. Current fixed-term rules state that an appointment ends on the date in the contract and carries no legal expectation of renewal or conversion, regardless of service length. The offer records the nature, category, grade, salary, duration and special conditions.

The Organization also uses managerial fixed-term appointments. These should be read from the specific vacancy rather than assumed to follow the same tenure route as an ordinary professional post.

A separate contractual scheme covers service contract holders, experts, officials on loan, interns and special advisers. The 2025 human resources report separates staff appointed under the Staff Regulations and Rules from affiliate and other personnel. A service contract is therefore not a P- or G-graded staff appointment.

Junior Professional Officers are sponsored through participating governments or arrangements and work under programme-specific terms. Officials on loan remain linked to the releasing institution. Internships are learning assignments with their own eligibility and support conditions.

P, D and G grades

Official human-resources reports classify Professional and higher staff from P1 through P5 and above, including director and Assistant Secretary-General levels. General Service staff run from G1 through G7.

Professional posts are internationally oriented and normally require a university degree and relevant specialist experience. Director grades carry senior programme and management responsibility. General Service covers administrative, secretarial, technical and operational support and is generally locally recruited.

The labels match the broad UN common-system pattern, but applicants should not assume that a UN Secretariat vacancy and a UN Tourism vacancy have identical appointment rules. The employing organization and appointment letter matter.

UN Tourism does not publish a current careers page mapping every job title to one grade. Programme Officer, Specialist, Regional Director and Programme Assistant titles can vary by scope. The vacancy grade is authoritative.

Staff salary follows the relevant common-system base scale. Professional and higher remuneration includes post adjustment for the duty station; General Service uses the local salary scale. Service contractors, experts and consultants are paid under their separate agreements.

Nationality, location and work areas

UN Tourism recruits internationally and considers qualifications, international experience, languages and geographical diversity. A vacancy can set a nationality, residence or work-authorization condition, particularly for General Service or project work. Do not assume that citizenship of a UN Tourism Member State is the only eligibility test unless the notice says so.

Madrid is headquarters. The Organization also has regional and thematic offices and may advertise remote or project-based assignments. A Madrid G-grade job and a service contract in another office do not share one salary table.

Job families include tourism policy, market intelligence and statistics, sustainable development, destination management, innovation, investment, education, technical cooperation, regional programmes, communications, partnerships, legal affairs, finance, HR, procurement, conference services and IT.

Applications and salary reading

Vacancies are published through the official UN Tourism Work with us page. Applications must follow the web-based instructions in the notice. Open personal-history forms or roster calls do not guarantee selection for a post.

Recruitment may include screening, written or technical assessment, interview, references and verification. The vacancy gives language requirements; English, Spanish and French are common in the Organization’s work, but the required combination varies.

For staff offers, confirm category, grade, step, appointment type and duty station before consulting the current common-system scale. Add post adjustment and eligible benefits separately. For a service contract, JPO, loan or internship, use that programme’s own payment and benefit terms rather than the staff grade table.