United Boards of Tourism

United Boards of Tourism (UBT) is an international agency formed by twelve member states and 131 local affiliates. It was founded in 2020, and is headquartered in Carpio, Carpio Province. UBT promotes intercultural understanding and economic development by means of sustainable tourism between nations. This entity, spearheaded by tourism authorities at every level of government in all member nations, is also open to representatives of educational institutions, NGOs, the private sector, and other related bodies.

History

In 2020, the Government of the Democratic Republic of North Baba expanded its model of “binational cooperation agencies” to forge a multinational link with its Strangereal neighbors. Tourism was prioritized as a means of expanding the member nations' economies and a joint tourism agency was agreed to by the Treaty to Establish an International Tourism Body. UBT was operational by 17 October 2020.

A failed 2021 proposal would have seen the UBT become part of a duo of international agencies with the strategic goal of global coherence and interconnection in the fields of tourism, postal services, and electronic communications. This would have been possible with the creation of a 'Postal Syndicate', led by a president, tasked with simplifying the global postal and communications standards between UBT member states. The parent UBT Group would have been headed by a UBTG Chair that reported to the UBT Directorate on progress in implementing a coordinated work plan. Therefore, the collective name given to both the UBT and the Postal Syndicate would have been the UBT Group, with the UBT Group serving as the parent organization of the United Boards of Tourism. The first candidate to be proposed for UBTG Chair was Anton Vinogradov, former Chief Advisor to the President from the Tourism Board of Yemet, followed by Abe Yoshinori, longtime advisor of the Tourism Department of llenn, days later. After the proposal’s failure, Director-General Karl Delgado appointed Vinogradov to the post of Deputy Director-General, mainly granting him oversight of all UBT continental departments, whilst Abe became Assistant Director-General for Interagency Relations and Resource Preparation within the UBT Directorate.

_{Logo of the proposed UBT Group (UBTG)}

Functions

UBT is supported by the UBT Directorate, headed by the UBT Director-General. The Director-General is responsible for the day-to-day administration of UBT, including budget and personnel management. The directorate is composed of units, services and secretariats that focus heavily on forging intergovernmental co-operation agreements and building out international travel contacts. Member states can determine UBT's structure, operation, fields of action and tasks by voting to amend the founding treaty.

Until 1 September 2021, UBT had a figurehead post of president, which shared many of the ceremonial aspects of the Director-General’s functions. This post was discontinued when its only holder, North Baban Edwina Prentiss, was kidnapped and murdered by the conspiracy-driven terrorist group Lisa's Sentinels after the North Baban government refused to free Herberto Dyer, the alleged mastermind of a Lisa's Sentinels 25 May assassination attempt against Prime Minister Brian Triana Narváez) in exchange for Prentiss’ release.

Services

Its UBTplus card allows for a tourism rebate to be applied to citizens from one country traveling elsewhere in the membership and, in addition to its tourist support centers, UBT is in charge of a network of hostels, apartments and houses to promote tourism in all member countries. These sites provide a place for leisure at affordable rates defined by the UBT Directorate in consultation with national tourism bodies.

Various Vacation Complexes, spread across the entire territory of its nations, allow foreigners to enjoy local geography and culture through beach stays, sport festivals, mountain hiking, films of national interest, and traditional plays & concerts. These complexes, owned by their respective central governments but administered by the UBT, form part of a international effort to promote the understanding of other cultures and friendship among participating nations.

On 3 June 2021, the Director-General announced that the intergovernmental agency will look to partner with Vekruise and Međunarodna Krstarenja Katudanska (MKK) to provide land and sea vacations on its behalf, including the transportation of tourists to its aforementioned vacation complexes around the world.

By 22 June, the UBT head announced a deal with the Smotlas government to develop a new vacation complex in a 50-acre lot in the Destran Islands. In addition to over 300 two-story family suites with a capacity of 1,800 for two-week vacations, the site would include: five gardens, seven restaurants, a local sports district with tennis & basketball courts, a shopping arcade, a bowling alley, a water park, direct access to beaches, and a prestigious sailing club. Said complex, named Villa Prentiss in honor of slain UBT president Edwina Prentiss, would be officially opened on 28 November by Smotlasite president Cres Blinder and UBT Director-General Delgado before a crowd of thousands. After attending an early luncheon, Blinder and Delgado hosted a late banquet at the site's Smotlasite-themed restaurant, where they celebrated Smotlasite artists commissioned for murals and mosaics all over the complex. Among the invited guests were several government ministers from Smotlas, North Baba, and other UBT member states, in addition to Gp Capt. Rona Vincent, PAFNB; North Baba’s first astronaut, members of the National Assembly of North Baba, the President of the North Baban Supreme People's Court, and even URSO Secretary-General Baltasar Valderrama.

Failed Postal Syndicate

Soon after, UBT Director-General Karl Delgado proposed a 'Postal Syndicate' between the agency’s member entities to coordinate postal policies and guidelines for electrical communications among the UBT’s member nations in the spirit of better interconnection across Strangereal without the necessity of reaching hundreds of bilateral postal agreements for direct links and standards between countries. Such proposal was largely ignored by a majority of UBT members but Delgado asked the UBT Directorate to analyze his plan and compile a detailed report for all member entities. At the time, only Katuda had publicly endorsed the proposal but the North Baban DIP (Defensive Intelligence and Prevention) told their Prime Minister that such a specialized division would be beneficial to North Baban security interests across Strangereal as it would prevent major diplomatic disputes over substandard mail and communications regulation that would collaterally damage the normal exchange of data. The Postal Syndicate would also administer a regular mail link between UBT facilities and affiliates across the world.

By 16 June, the UBT Directorate announced the compilation of a detailed report on the proposed 'Postal Syndicate' and proceeded to deliver it to UBT member entities. According to DRB, the report addressed the syndicate’s ability to encourage interagency cooperation in the development of mail, radio, television, and online communications and standards, along with the development of professional human resources. It also mentioned the proposed entity’s goal to expand and balance telecommunication services & IT infrastructure to benefit member nations through the transfer of technology and the mutual exchange of information. Such 'Postal Syndicate' would be a center for the coordination of telecommunication policy and regulation between UBT member states for a long-term welfare to their IT infrastructure and cultural connectivity.

_{Flag of the proposed Postal Syndicate}

With explicit support of seven UBT member states, an international conference was called to establish the Postal Syndicate (PS) in late July 2021. Initially, the proposed candidates to head it were Imanuel Mišic, former head of the Katudan Postal Service (PSK), Edison Darwin, former CEO of the Memesterian Television and Radio Corporation, and Aleksei Kozlov, former Director-General of the National Postal Service of Yemet. Sadly, enough support never materialized and, in a letter to all UBT delegates present at the Plural Conference on the Syndicate (PCS) in Royling, Director-General Karl Delgado announced the sudden conclusion of the conference given “the unsuccessful search for interest in greater cooperation between member states of the United Boards of Tourism.” Mr. Delgado confirmed that pending resolutions and proposals for a Postal Syndicate and the UBT Group would be archived within UBT headquarters in Carpio, North Baba for future generations to study and try to implement “in the spirit of global consensus.” Finally, the UBT leader thanked the former candidates for President of the Postal Syndicate and Chair of the UBT Group as well as the countries that supported them, confirming that they would all receive appointments within the UBT structure in the near future. The Syndicate's headquarters would have been in Royling, Katuda.

Similar projects

Outside Strangereal, North Baba has established additional agencies for binational cooperation with several countries. These entities deal with different areas of common policy to those of UBT. For instance, the NBY Foundation administrates common policies regarding labour and economic competition equalization legislation between Yalgora and North Baba to prevent outsourcing whilst the NB-Tringapore Initiative focuses more on culture-oriented policies (such as cultural visas and student exchanges) in addition to the economic aspects of cooperation with the Democratic Republic of Tringapore.