PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort
More than thirty renowned top-level experts from America and Europe are participating in the International Conference 'Sustainability as a key factor of competitiveness in the Tourism Industry', which is being held this Thursday and Friday at the Jameos del Agua Auditorium, with the presence of about 500 people who have registered interested in attending this event.
The summit began with an inaugural session in which the president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Pedro San Ginés, highlighted "the extraordinary importance of holding this summit in Lanzarote coinciding with the proclamation of 2017 as the `International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development`, by the UN, since it means a clear endorsement and an express recognition of our environmental trajectory and projects us abroad, consolidating us as a genuine destination with its own identity, as a benchmark in terms of sustainable development linked to Tourism and as a leading destination".
The opening ceremony also included speeches by the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Isaac Castellano; the executive director of Affiliate Members of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Yolanda Perdomo Aparicio; the director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO, Miguel Clüsener-Godt; the deputy director General of Development and Sustainability of the Secretary of State for Tourism of the Government of Spain, Tatiana Martínez, and the president of the Institute for Responsible Tourism (ITR), Tomás Azcárate Bang.
United Nations Sponsorship
The Conference is organized by the Society for the Promotion of Foreign Affairs of Lanzarote (SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote) and the Institute for Responsible Tourism (ITR), with the sponsorship of the United Nations, through two of its organizations, UNESCO and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands. It also has the support of the Secretary of State for Tourism of the Government of Spain as well as the main international organizations and the sector involved in the promotion of more sustainable tourist destinations. At the local level, the Conference also has the sponsorship of EPEL-CACTs, and the collaboration of ASOLAN.
For two days, a tight agenda of presentations, conferences and round tables is planned, which will focus on various topics related to the undeniable role that sustainability must acquire in the tourism industry. According to its managers, "the meeting aims to shed light on a set of decisive recommendations and set precise goals regarding the contribution of the Tourism Industry to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, following the guidelines of the World Charter for Sustainable Tourism ST+20 adopted in 2015 in Vitoria-Gasteiz".
In the different activities, authorities and leading expert figures in responsible tourism, from countries such as the USA, Canada, Mexico or Spain, organizations such as the Association of British Travel Agencies (ABTA) and corporations such as IBM, TUI, Tripadvisor, Iberia Express or the Hotel Technological Institute (ITH), among others, will debate.
First day's program
After the opening session, the presentation "Sustainability as a key factor in the Tourism Industry" was read by Yolanda Perdomo, executive director of Affiliate Members of the UNWTO. The summit continued with the round table "Sustainability and Tourism Competitiveness: the perspective from the industry", moderated by Patrick Torrent, president of NECSTour, and in which Cristóbal de la Rosa, Deputy Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands; Clare Jenkinson, Manager of Destinations and Sustainability of ABTA; Fernando Candela, CEO of Iberia Express, and Susana Pérez Represa, president of ASOLAN, participated.
The morning session continued with the presentation "UNESCO and its commitment to more sustainable tourism", given by Miguel Clüsener-Godt, director p.i. of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO. And before lunch, the discussion table "The marketing of Sustainability: the vision of the markets" took place, moderated by the CEO of Turismo Lanzarote, Héctor Fernández, with the participation of Mike Brauner, Sustainable Development Manager of TUI; Juan Manuel López Zafra, representative of StatPro 2000; Marga de Luis, Director of Marketing and Sales of the Hotel La Isla y El Mar, and Sergio Moreno Gil, professor at the Institute of Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development (TiDES)
In the afternoon, starting at 4:00 p.m., the conference "Global Criteria for Sustainable Tourism" was scheduled, with Luigi Cabrini, president of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), as speaker, to continue with the round table moderated by the CEO of EPEL-CACTs, José Juan Lorenzo. "Innovation and Technology for Sustainability". Experts from leading corporations such as Mario Romero, Operations Manager of BIG DATA Luca Telefónica; Elisa Martín Garijo, Director of Technology and Innovation of IBM Spain, and Leire González, Senior Sales Executive for Spain, Portugal and the Nordic Countries of Tripadvisor, will participate.
The last round table of this Thursday will focus on "The tourist experiences offered by companies", which will be moderated by Lluis Pujol, manager of Saborea España, and will include the interventions of Mª Pilar Montes Lasheras, Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Culture, Commerce and Tourism of the Logroño City Council; Vicent Lluch, representative of Descubre l’Horta; Juan Cazorla Godoy, technician of the Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote, and Pedro Calero, professor of the University School of Tourism of Lanzarote.
