Who’s Who

John Kester

Destination & Industry Conference Board

John G.C. Kester is an independent researcher, consultant, advisor, teacher, trainer and speaker. His expertise includes data analysis, statistics and forecasting in the areas of tourism, trade, transport, sustainable development, competitiveness and environmental impact.

John is the former Director Statistics, Trends and Policy at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a specialised agency of the United Nations. In this capacity he managed and supervised the activities regarding statistics standards and measurement, implementation and capacity building, worldwide tourism data collection and compilation, analysis of trends and research.

He has been collaborating with international organisations, such as the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations (UN-DESA), the European Commission, the European Travel Commission (ETC), the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

John graduated in Social Science with a specialisation in research methodology and data analysis from the University of Leiden (Netherlands). Before joining UNWTO, he worked for seven years at Statistics Netherlands.