EXCELTUR: a time to mull over
Reps from the European Union (UE), the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the State Department of Trade and Tourism and all major tourism companies discussed last Monday their standpoints on the tourist sector and their competitive challenges within the framework of EXCELTUR Second International Conference.
The goal behind this year’s edition of EXCELTUR is to both encourage and foster debate over the many challenges left by the year 2002 for different tourist companies and enterprises. That’s why the alliance for tourist excellence gathered an assortment of lecturers of all stripes who touched on the main competitive threats and transformations with a view to keep tourism as the number-one Spanish industry.
EXCELTUR is an association for tourist excellence made up of 27 of Spain’s premiere tourist companies.
Xabier de Irala, president of Iberia and EXCELTUR, was in charge of introducing the lecturers. Joan Gaspart, president of the Hotusa Group, presented a paper entitled “2002, A year to assess. Implications for 2003.”
Four different viewpoints (those of the European Union, the WTO, the Spanish Tourist Management and EXCELTUR) made an appraisal of the tourist sector in 2002 and outlined their estimates for the ongoing year.
Loyola de Palacio, head of the European Transportation and Energy Commission; Francesco Frangialli, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), and Abel Matutes, chairman of Fiesta Hotels and vice president of EXCELTUR were among the event’s top attendants.
Leading execs from the leisure industry also attended the meeting and weighed in on the sector’s present and near future. Some of those personalities were Michael Frenzen, president of the Preussaq-TUI Group; British Airways CEO Rod Eddington; Jean Claude Baumgarten, president of the World Travel Tourism & Council (WTTC), the Chairman of the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA); President Thomas Cook, Stefan Pichler and Six Continents president Ian Prosser.
Attendants aired their views on the shifting offer and demand, their situational implications, profitability improvement, sustainable growth, the need for a stronger leadership and the differential positioning of Spanish products and destinations.
