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Industry leaders and governments met in Florianopolis at the 9th Global Travel & Tourism Summit to debate new forms of partnership to help stimulate the global economic recovery. Transforming Economies and Removing Barriers Towards Global Integration through Travel & Tourism were two of the main themes of the 9th Global Travel and Tourism Summit, which was organised under the patronage of His Excellency Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The two-day event took place in Florianopolis, the capital of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, from 15-16 May.
As the global business leaders’ forum, comprising the Presidents and Chief Executives of the foremost 100 Travel & Tourism companies around the world, WTTC’s main mission is to promote the economic importance of the sector, which generates 9% of global GDP and employs as many as 220 million people worldwide.
"This is the first time that the Summit has been held in Latin America," Jean-Claude Baumgarten, WTTC’s President & CEO told the Brazilian media and industry leaders at a press conference to launch the Summit programme in Sao Paulo earlier last week. "And we are delighted to bring the Summit to Santa Catarina," Baumgarten added, "a state which offers enormous promise in terms of tourism development and opportunities for investors in Travel & Tourism, whether from Brazil or other countries.
"The Summit’s rich programme, organised under the theme Real Partnerships: Energising Economies, and which included high-level speakers from both the public and private sectors, offered a unique opportunity to the global Travel & Tourism industry – not least in Brazil," Baumgarten said, "to create new forms of public-private sector partnership to restore confidence, which in turn will help kick-start Travel & Tourism demand and stimulate economic growth and employment."
"Other sessions generating huge interest included an international panel discussion on Changing Values," noted Ufi Ibrahim, Chief Operating Officer of WTTC and author of the Summit programme. "Panellists in this session debated the main value drivers of key stakeholders in Travel & Tourism, and tried to determine how these will evolve over the coming years."
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
