Recognising for her dedication for the tourism sector, Basmah Abdulaziz Al-Mayman is the Regional Director for the Middle East, since 2018. She is still the first woman representing tourism in the Middle East that has garnered a position in the prestigious classification, and she is also the first GCC national to hold a leading position at the UNWTO and the first woman to lead the Middle East region in the history of this international organization.
During her tenure, UNWTO opened its first Regional Office for the Middle East (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). She permanently represents, as well, the UNWTO in the meetings of the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism in the League of Arab States. Al-Mayman has an MBA, with honors degree, from Al Faisal University, in cooperation with the University of Oxford, where she studied Entrepreneurship and Comparative Managerial Issues and a Bachelor´s degree in English Literature and Linguistics from King Saud University,. She also studied several advanced specialized courses in International Relations, International law, Economic and Diplomatic affairs at Prince Saud Al-Faisal Institute of Diplomatic Studies at the Foreign Ministry in Saudi Arabia. She is fluent in both Arabic and English.