At the closing session of its Global Summit in Manila today, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announced that its 22nd event will take place in Riyadh, capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from 29th November to 2nd December this year.
In Manila, more than a thousand delegates, including the world’s foremost business leaders, government ministers and key decision-makers from across the global Travel & Tourism sector gathered together, to discuss how to build upon the continuing recovery.
Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, said: “It has been a privilege to bring together so many leaders from across the global Travel & Tourism sector, committed to creating a brighter, safer and more sustainable future.
“We’ve shared best practices to help the sector’s continuing recovery so that over the coming decade it will help power the global economic recovery by creating 126 million jobs over the next ten years – one in three of all new jobs.
“We look forward to our 22nd Global Summit later this year in Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to mark the next chapter in the sector’s ongoing recovery.”
His Excellency Al Khateeb, Saudi Arabia Minister for Tourism, said: “Saudi Arabia is proud to be hosting the next WTTC Global Summit, later this year. We are a new destination and an ambitious country.
“We aim to shape a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable tourism sector, taking full advantage of our ability to do things in new ways. We look forward to welcoming the leaders of travel and tourism to the Kingdom, and to sharing our experiences with them.”
Under the theme of ‘Rediscovering Travel’, tourism ministers and Travel & Tourism leaders from around the world reinforced their determination towards greater cooperation and alignment between the public and private sectors.
At WTTC’s Global Leaders Dialogue session they explored how the sector will continue to adapt to COVID-19 and emerge resiliently from the pandemic.
WTTC’s latest Economic Impact Report also revealed the Travel & Tourism sector was expected to create nearly 126 million new jobs within the next decade and Travel & Tourism’s contribution to GDP could reach pre-pandemic levels by 2023.
WTTC’s major ‘Hotel Sustainability Basics’ sustainability initiative was launched at its Global Summit, providing a starting point to drive sustainability throughout the hospitality sector to power the momentum toward responsible Travel & Tourism.
The global body also launched its new cyber resilience report, ‘Codes to resilience’, with Microsoft, for the global Travel & Tourism sector, which outlined pillars to strengthen cyber security for businesses around the world.
The summit also saw the launch of WTTC’s biggest ever global survey of traveller attitudes – polling nearly half a million people – with knowledge partner YouGov, which laid out the huge pent-up desire to travel, with 51% of those polled ‘just need to get away’.
British adventurer Bear Grylls was the conference keynote, alongside other major speakers, including American film producer Lawrence Bender, Singapore-born American novelist and writer of satirical novels Kevin Kwan and Indonesian/Dutch environmental activist Melati Wijsen.
