U.S, Nov. 7 -- As delegates gather in Riyadh for this week's UN Tourism General Assembly, a growing chorus of senior officials-publicly silent but privately blunt-is asking a question that would once have been unthinkable: Does the world still need UN Tourism in its current form?

For some European governments and African ministers, dissatisfaction with the agency is no longer a whisper; it has become a loud outcry. It is a quiet reckoning.

A top-level government official from Europe, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to diplomatic sensitivities, put it plainly: "We are the largest funders of this organization. Why are we not questioning a structure where leadership can be effectively secured through targeted investments from a cou...