Government Ministers and Industry Leaders to Discuss Full Social and Economic Potential of Travel and Tourism

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is holding the 5th Global Travel and Tourism Summit in New Delhi from April 8-10. Leading government, industry and media players from around the world will focus on the need for the Travel and Tourism sector to realize its full potential for social and economic development.

As one of the largest industries in the world today, responsible for

employing more than 200 million people and generating over 10 per cent of global GDP, Travel and Tourism provides a gateway to economic progress particularly in areas where there are few alternatives, the organizers uphold.

Delegates will discuss how success is being achieved, which companies and governments are leading the way and the impact of future developments.

Under the overall theme, Realizing the Potential, highlights of the

agenda include:

• Summit inauguration by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, The Honourable President of India

• Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of Marriott International describing

how the Travel & Tourism industry can create genuine prosperity for

everyone involved

• A panel discussion focusing on where it will be right for the public

and private sectors to collaborate and where it will not

• An investigation, involving Tourism ministers from four different

continents, into the strategies necessary to make a destination successful

• Launch of a new economic tool that can help forecast the economic

impact of a disaster and estimate the speed of recovery

• A debate about the best way for the industry to communicate in the

face of natural and man-made catastrophes

• A premonition of the industry´s future with Roger Bootle, an economist

with a reputation for making controversial predictions that have turned

out to be correct

• Opinions from business leaders on the prospects for growth,

consolidation and restructuring in the Travel & Tourism sector

• An investigation into the latest innovations and the implications of

new technology

• Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman & CEO, Carlson Companies describing

how companies and their people can work together for their mutual benefit

• A panel discussion on inspirational leadership in the Travel & Tourism

industry

• Barry Sternlicht, Executive Chairman of Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Worldwide, giving his personal views on branding success

• A conversation about which is the better business strategy: to create

or to trade?

• The final summing up by a panel of highly influential business leaders.