Taleb Rifai is the current Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization, the first Arab to run the 154 member body. He is based in Madrid, Spain, where the UNWTO agency is based. Rifai was born in Jordan in 1949. He is married and has 5 children.

Rifai was elected Secretary General of the UNWTO on May 12, 2009. He obtained 20 out of the 31 votes. The closest competitor was the Korean Dr. Oh Jee-Chul, from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO). The Korean candidate only obtained 10 out of the 11 remaining. The remaining one vote was given to Mr. Khalid Malik who is the Pakistani UN Resident Coordinator in China. Furthermore, there was actually a fourth candidate for the position of Secretary General, Mr. Arab Hoballah who was the Chief of Sustainable Consumption and Production in the UN Environment Programme of Lebanon. He had to withdraw from the campaign since Lebanon was not paying to be allowed to present a candidate for the position.  The election of Rifai in May was nothing more than a selection of an official candidate to be presented to the 155 member inter-governmental body. In October, the position was ratified and the position of Dr. Francesco Frangialli was usurped in Kazakhstan. Dr. Rifai will hold office until the end of 2013.