IFEMA Hosts 15th Global Summit of World Travel & Tourism Council

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Last week, the Convention and Congress Centre IFEMA hosted the Annual Summit of the WTTC, the first time the event has been held in Europe in the last seven years.

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) chose IFEMA Feria Madrid to hold its annual summit on travel and tourism, from 15-16 April, this being the first time that the event has been held in Europe in the last seven years.

The chief aim of the WTTC is to promote the sustainable growth of the industry, working with governments and international institutions so as to create jobs, boost exports and generate 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."

A forum of debate, the Annual Summit of the WTTC is attended by high-ranking representatives of the public and private sector, travel associations and the media.

Featuring among the participants was Jose Manuel Barroso, ex-president of the European Commission, who discussed Europe’s economic and political past, present and future, in addition to the situation faced by the travel and tourism industry as the continent enters a new political phase, Ana Botin, executive chairwoman of Banco Santander, Tony Tyler, CEO of the International Association of Air Transport (IATA), Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, and Luis Maroto, president of Amadeus.

The companies that are associated WTTC members move annually more than €300,000 million (350,000 million dollars). The tourism sector is central to investment and economic growth on a global scale. Last year, the abovementioned industry generated 277 million jobs (1 in 11 of all the jobs in the world), representing 9.5% of the world’s GDP (totalling 7.6 trillion dollars).

Published
24/04/2015