UNWTO Secretary General, Rafael Anson to Present Miami as Gastronomic Hub of the Americas

General Secretary of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, will travel to Miami with the President of the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy (AIBG), Rafael Ansón, with whom he will present "The role of gastronomy in the choice of tourist destinations: Miami Gastronomy of the Americas ", this upcoming April 10, 2019 at the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The act the Academy and the UNWTO will officiate will focus on discovering key strategies to promote and optimize gastronomic tourism for uniting companies and institutions with common business interests in the gastronomic world and discovering international culinary opportunities and strategies to attract high-spending international tourism.

The Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy and the Miami Culinary Institute of Miami Dade College, in the presence of the UNWTO, will sign on April 9 a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) making official their commitment to collaborate in the organization of the event "Meeting of Chefs" and "Miami Mixology Soirée".

These events are part of the appointment of Miami as the Iberian-American Capital of Gastronomic Culture of 2019, a brand designation created by the Iberian-American Gastronomy Academy annually to award recognition to the gastronomic excellence of a destination of one of the countries that are represented in the Academy (AIBG).

The World Tourism Organization and the main Miami institutions will work closely in this project.

According to Rafael Ansón, President of the Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy (AIBG), Miami is a city where the Iberian-American culture already has a great presence but needs to continue to communicate its potential: “During 2019, it will be a showcase for tourists, giving them the opportunity to learn about Latin-America’s global gastronomic offer. Miami is already, without any doubt, the Hub of America. Now it’s a matter of discovering and communicating it ?s gastronomical potential and we will achieve it by uniting art, culture and gastronomy”.

Miami is the fifth metropolis to be selected after Sao Paulo, Brazil (2018), Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017), Guanajuato, Mexico (2016) and Cordoba, Spain (2015).

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is the United Nations agency in charge of the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the field in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide. UNWTO’s membership includes 158 countries, 6 Associate Members and over 500 Affiliate Members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities.

The Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy is a non-profit cultural association born in 2009. It´s main goal is to encourage the investigation, spread and protection of the gastronomic activities of the different regions of the Iberian-American countries. It looks after the essence of their traditions, supports their modernization and impulses complete performances in international cooperation and solidarity.

The Iberian-American Academy of Gastronomy is formed by the National Academies of 13 Iberian-American Countries including Spain and Portugal.