Three regional presidents sit down with the tourism sector at Exceltur

The second round of panels at the Exceltur Forum, held at Ifema as a starting point for Fitur, brought together leading figures from the tourism sector, from both the private and public sectors. 

An image of good understanding that José Luis Zoreda, vice-president of Exceltur, praised in the company of the regional presidents of Andalusia, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, when he spoke of "complicity and cooperation between the public and private sectors, which is so necessary to overcome the pandemic". 

Exceltur, representing the tourism sector, brought important issues such as the ecological transition and its counterpart, sustainable tourism, to the debate in the second part of its forum. New technologies applied to the sector, both for the benefit of the consumer and the entrepreneur. Tourism cooperation between administrations and with the private sector.

These panels were led by the Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, accompanied by the President of the Balearia company, Adolfo Utor. 

During a colloquium, they discussed the issue of the ecological transition and its impact or adaptation to the tourism sector, a subject that Utor was particularly concerned about in reference to the changes that this ecological transition could bring about in terms of mobility, for example, large cruise ships. "Countries with competition such as Turkey could gain more clients if in Spain we suffer a rise in prices in conventional mobility", Utor commented to the minister, who responded that a good transition has to be made with the least possible impact on the economic activities that are carried out in Spain. Ribera recalled, however, that in the common European policies for the transition, the measures do not include civil aviation. In other areas, such as land transport, the minister explained that the transition is strongly committed to intermodality that includes the electrification of vehicles, or routes with a low environmental impact, such as trains.

The panel with Utor and Ribera was followed by two tables with the presence and presentation of four experts in new technologies and their applications to the tourism sector, for the benefit of consumers and entrepreneurs, especially in digital environments. Luis Maroto, CEO of Amadeus, Nicolas Huss, CEO of HotelBeds, Fuencisla Clemares, General Manager of Google for Spain and Portugal, and finally David Saez, Head of Tourism at Facebook Spain. 

These roundtables on innovation were followed by one of the highlights of the day, entitled "Are we really cooperating? New public-private tourism governance", with the participation of Juan Manuel Moreno, President of the Andalusian Regional Government, Francina Armengol, President of the Government of the Balearic Islands, and Ángel Víctor Torres, President of the Canary Islands. The leaders were accompanied by José Luis Zoreda, Carlos Bartomeu and Abel Matutes. 

During this round table, the regional presidents reviewed some of their measures for the sector in the face of the pandemic, such as the new Balearic legislation. Juan Manuel Moreno highlighted in particular his opinion on the distribution of European funds for economic recovery, for which he would have liked "a distribution model similar to the German one, which included the different landers in the distribution decisions". 

Juan Manuel Moreno also raised his idea of some "State" projects, which would transcend the autonomous communities in order to promote national tourism projects "such as, for example, the renovation of tourist areas throughout the Mediterranean". 

Finally, Gabriel Escarrer, President of Exceltur, and the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, closed the conference with a few words dedicated to the sector, especially those of Escarrer, recalling the need for a PERTE (strategic plan for economic recovery and transformation) promoted by the State for Spanish tourism.