Tourism Ministers joined Taleb Rifai, the Secretary General of the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) to sit with private sector leaders from the world of tourism and David Scowsill, the President and CEO of the WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council) for the 15th WTTC Global Summit in Spain.
The first session was a “Ministerial Session on Investment in Infrastructure and Development for Travel and Tourism” where the leaders in travel and tourism sat side by side with government ministers and together exchanged ideas and successes.
“This is a great initiative, because public-private sector partnerships are clearly the way forward. The call by UNWTO and WTTC to have such a joint meeting is commendable. In Seychelles, we work hard to do exactly that with public-private sector approach overseeing our Tourism Board and in a larger concept the Cross Sectorial Ministerial Meeting under the chairmanship of the island’s Vice President. Here, government ministers who have a direct or indirect impact on the tourism industry with the private sector players, look in all transparency for the way forward by raising points seen as challenges,” said Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture.
All the ministers present felt that this initiative by the UNWTO and the WTTC was a right move.
Delegates were hosted last night to a welcome dinner in the presence of HRH the King of Spain at the Casino de Madrid.
Seychelles is a founding member of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) .
