The Convention and Congress Centre IFEMA receives for two days the Annual Summit of the WTTC, after seven years of absence in Europe
The World Travel & Tourism Council, WTTC, has chosen IFEMA to celebrate in Europe its annual summit again about travels and tourism, after seven years of absence in the continent. The 15th Global Summit of the WTTC will begin this Wednesday 15th of April and will conclude on Thursday 16th in the Fair of Madrid.
The World Travel & Tourism Council tries to promote the sustainable growth of the industry, working for it, with governments and international institutions, with the purpose of creating jobs, impelling exports and generating prosperity. For the president of the WTTC, David Scowsill, “there is no higher event in the calendar for private and public sector leaders inside the tourism industry”.
This appointment, which is celebrated for the first time in our country, in words of the mayor of Madrid, Ana Botella, “contributes to establish Madrid as a destination in the minds of nearly 1,000 experts in the travel industry, as well as sharing with the whole world the touristic, cultural, gastronomic, shopping and leisure attractions of Madrid”.
The Annual Summit of the WTTC gathers the maximum representatives of the public and private sectors, of the travel associations and the media in the only discussion forum. The presence is foreseen of up to 1,000 people from around the world, including 300 chief executives, the government ministers, thought leaders and media. These bring specialist knowledge to guide government policy and decisionmaking, to announce the importance of the industry as an economic generator of prosperity.
Among the assistants will be José Manuel Barroso, expresident of the European Commission, who will discuss Europe’s economic and political past, present and future, in addition to the situation that the Travel and Tourism sector faces as the continent penetrates into a new political stage; Ana Botín, executive chairman of Banco Santander; Tony Tyler, CEO of IATA – International association of Air transport; Taleb Rifai, SecretaryGeneral of UNWTO – World Tourism Organisation; Michael O'Leary, executive director of Ryanair; or Luis Maroto, Amadeus' president, will also participate in 15th Global Summit of the WTTC.
A fact to highlight is that at 9:30am of Thursday 16th, there will be a special panel dedicated to our country that will try to explain its link with the rest of the world. Spain is considered to be the third most visited country of the world and Madrid plays more than important role as a world destination centre. Some of the questions that will be answered are, for example, how Spanish will influence the travel agencies in the next decades or what connections Spain offers to the rest of countries. In this block, will participate Ana Botella, mayor of Madrid; Emilio Butragueño, the director of Institutional Relations of Real Madrid C.F.; Simón Pedro Barceló, cochairman of the Council Barceló Group; or Luis Gallego, manager of Iberia, among others.
The companies that are associated WTTC members move annually a capital of more than 300,000 million euros (350,000 million dollars). The tourism sector is key for the investment and the economic growth on a global scale. Last year, the abovementioned sector represented 277 million jobs (1 of every 11 of all the jobs in the world), which contributed to 9.5% of the world’s GDP (a total of 7.6 trillion dollars).
Contacts
Department of Communication and Press IFEMA
Jesús González, 91 722 50 05 / jesusg@ifema.es
WTTC Congress
Ana Moreno Soria / 91 788 32 43
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