UNWTO Organising Seminar to Respond to Global Economic Challenges

The opening session addresses will be delivered by John Kester, chief of UNWTO Market Trends, Competitiveness and Trade in Tourism.

The Secretariat of the UNWTO Affiliate Members, together with State Secretariat for Tourism of Spain, and in collaboration with the UNWTO Market Trends and Competitiveness Section, are jointly organizing the UNWTO Seminar on the theme:

“WORLD TOURISM: RESPONDING TO THE NEW CHALLENGES IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY”.

The aims of the seminar are to discuss assessments and available options, to determine whether there exists a possible course of action in a single direction for the world of tourism in order for the sector to emerge in good shape from the current economic gyrations and difficulties, and to provide the necessary confidence to the market and the customer base.

During the Seminar, participants will also have the opportunity to get to know first-hand the initial estimates of the UNWTO regarding the performance of world tourism in 2008 and its forecasts for 2009.

Says the UNWTO: “After four years of considerable growth, boosted by a buoyant world economy, in 2008 the scenario for international tourism has dramatically changed. First, the sector has been plagued by sky-high fuel prices and secondly, like every other sector of the economy, it is experiencing the impact of the financial crisis which is causing concern and a series of uncertainties regarding the immediate future.”

“Tourism activity, which is multisectoral by its very nature, is clearly exposed to this economic turbulence. The same assessment cannot be applied to all the subsectors and all the regions; and they do not all have the same weaknesses. But it seems to be the case that the current scenario is characterized comparatively by lower growth rates, stagnation and even episodes of recession.”

“The slowdown in the growth of international tourism expected in 2008 comes following four years of unprecedented positive results. From 2004 to 2007, international tourist arrivals grew at the extraordinary rate of 7 per cent annually, substantially above the long-term trend of 4 per cent, driven by a prosperous world economy and by the pent-up demand in the wake of the challenges faced by the industry in 2001-2003 (a period in which an economic downturn coincided with the terrorist attacks of September 11, among others, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the SARS outbreak). “

“In recent decades, tourism has been able to withstand, with greater success than the majority of other productive sectors, periods of undoubted economic crisis as well as other difficulties such as SARS. It has been able to relaunch its activity, as few sectors have been capable of doing, and has rebounded quickly and strongly from transient periods of weakness. Looking back, we can observe that from 1980 until now there were only two occasions (1982 and 2003) in which there was a decline in international tourism flows, and even then the declines were less than 2%. “

“But we do not know with precision if the attitudes and responses demonstrated by the world tourism sector at those times will be as effective today to weather such a singular cycle as the current one.

“This Seminar has been organized to gather together a diverse and qualified representation of the tourism sector in order to determine the nature of the real impacts that are being experienced by the industry as well as by the destinations, in addition to understanding what actions, measures or plans are being implemented to respond to the current situation, and, as the case may be, to identify the most appropriate ones.”

The opening session addresses will be delivered by John Kester, chief of UNWTO Market Trends, Competitiveness and Trade in Tourism and Prof. Peter Keller, Former Director of Tourism of Switzerland, Director of the Institute of Tourism, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Lausanne (Switzerland)

There will be a sectoral experts panel moderated by Mr. Javier Bustamante, President of SEGITTUR

PANELLISTS
Mr. Javier Gómez-Navarro, President of the Spanish High Council of Chambers of Commerce and Industry
Ms. Esther Trujillo, Vice President, Sol Meliá Hotels & Resorts
Mr. Antonio Pimentel García-Valldecasas, Deputy Director, International Relations, Iberia, Líneas Aéreas de España
Mr. Martin Brackenbury, President, International Federation of Tour Operators -IFTO
Mr. Diego Lofeudo, Director of Market Management, Eastern Med & Africa, EXPEDIA TRAVEL
Prof. Carlos Manuel Martins Da Costa, Department of Economics and Management, University of Aveiro (Portugal)
Mr. Fernando Prats, Urban Planner, Coordinator of the Sustainability Area of the Spanish Horizon 2020 Tourism Plan

CONCLUSIONS
Mr. Javier Blanco, Executive Director, UNWTO Affiliate Members

Valere Tjolle