A/RES/74/211 Sustainable tourism and sustainable development in Central America 21. Invites Member States and other stakeholders and the World Tourism Organization to continue to support the activities undertaken by the Central American countries for the promotion of sustainable tourism in the region, including with regard to emergency preparedness for better disaster risk reduction, the vulnerabilities of the Central American countries to natural disasters, and their impacts on sustainable tourism, as well as for capacity-building, job creation and the promotion of local culture and products, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals; 22. Invites the international community to support efforts, as appropriate, in creating and implementing innovative technologies to modernize the tourism industry in the Central American countries; 23. Encourages the Central American countries, through the Central American Tourism Council and the Central American Tourism Integration Secretariat, to promote sustainable tourism by intensifying bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation at the level of the tourism industry, and to continue to support sustainable tourism through policies that foster responsive and inclusive tourism, strengthen regional identity and protect their natural and cultural heritage, including their ecosystems and biodiversity, and notes that existing initiatives, such as the Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism, among other international initiatives, can deliver direct and focused support to Governments; 24. Also encourages the Central American countries to establish and strengthen secure, reliable, efficient, high-quality, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including transit transport systems that link them to international markets, affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy and information and communications technology, with the support of the international community, as appropriate, so as to promote sustainable tourism in the region; 25. Recognizes that persons with disabilities have equal rights to access tourism services and opportunities, such as independent t ravel, accessible services, trained staff, reliable information and inclusive marketing, and that great efforts should be made to ensure that tourism policies and practices are inclusive of persons with disabilities, the majority of whom live in developing countries; 26. Calls upon Member States and the tourism sector to take effective measures, in the context of sustainable tourism, including ecotourism initiatives, to help to promote the equal participation of women and the balanced participation of youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and local communities, at all levels and in decision-making processes in all areas, and to promote effective economic empowerment, mainly through decent job and income creation; 27. Recognizes that addressing the need for improved monitoring of the development impacts of tourism requires rethinking and changing traditional practices in order to incorporate multiple data sources to provide public administrations and the tourism sector with the most updated intelligence on tourism, and notes the progress achieved through the International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories of the World Tourism Organization, which is focused on continuously monitoring the impacts of tourism, tackling the three dimensions of sustainability, strengthening evidence-based decision-making and creating a culture of continuous and timely monitoring and measurement; 28. Welcomes the positive role of tourism in the conservation of biodiversity and in fighting climate change, which provides a further argument for enhancing the environmental components of tourism policies and better utilizing the potential of tourism as an enabling agent of change, and the convening of the United Nations 6/7 19-22424