Prospects, Challenges of Tourism’s Recovery for 2010-2011

Ministers from 9 major tourism generating and receiving countries, government officials, the heads of the two principal worldwide tourism organizations, and the presidents and/or CEOs of 8 of the biggest tourism groups and companies in the world will participate as speakers, along with prominent Spanish businessmen of the sector, leading figures in finance and renowned economists.

Co-organized by Exceltur and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), with the special collaboration of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the Forum will discuss the effects of the current crisis and the keys to economic recovery at the global, European and Spanish levels.

Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and Sebastian Escarrer, Chairman of Exceltur and Vice-President of Sol Melia, presented in Madrid the fifth edition of the Exceltur Tourism Leadership Forum, which the two entities are co-organizing and which will take place on 19 January 2010 (on the eve of FITUR) at the Palacio de Congresos de Madrid.

With the title “Prospects and Challenges of Tourism’s Recovery for 2010/2011”, this Forum acquires a tri-level dimension for the first time as it addresses issues from the global, European and Spanish perspectives thanks to a top-flight list of speakers and a program of topics of international scope, thus constituting an event that is unprecedented in Spain and that will probably be unsurpassed in Europe in 2010.

Exceltur Chairman Sebastian Escarrer pointed out during the presentation of the Forum that the effects of the adverse global economic situation we are experiencing should not be confused with the problems of a more structural nature that are leading to the gradual loss of competitiveness of certain sun-and-sand destinations.

For his part, Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), expressed his satisfaction over the opportunity to work with Exceltur in organizing the Forum, an event that he expects to be “the most important in Europe and probably the world in the early part of 2010, from which many of the new keys for facing the future of the tourism at the international level will emerge”.

In his remarks, Rifai underlined that tourism is a key factor for job creation and that it mobilizes investment, galvanizes trade and builds bridges between cultures. He provided advance figures for 2009 showing declines in both tourist arrivals and receipts (-8 percent worldwide and -11 percent in Europe).

However, he said that for 2010-with the caveat that the outlook naturally varies from region to region and from country to country-green shoots are expected to be seen in Asia with flat growth forecast for Europe. Nevertheless, he pointed out that there are still no employment recovery scenarios at the world level.