Editorial: Summit in Brussels

by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt FRGS FRAS

Dear Reader,

When this edition of COTRI Weekly is published, I will be in Brussels, participating in the Global Tourism Forum Leaders Summit Europe, organised by World Tourism Forum Institute and hosted by Ismail Ertug, Member of the European Parliament.

Among the speakers will be high-level representatives from both politics and industry, including on the side of the politicians Mr. David Sassoli, the President of European Parliament, the tourism ministers of Albania, Greece, Indonesia and Malta, several members of the European Parliament and the Mayor of Bodrum/Turkey.

On the industry side, the CEO of Accor Hotel, the CEO of Qatar Airways, the Vice-President of IATA and other heavyweights will take the stage. A special mention is also appropriate for Swati Mandela, who is not only a distinguished Humanitarian International Speaker but also the granddaughter of Nelson Mandela.

Your humble editor will have the honour to appear two times on stage, first as Chair of a discussion titled Meaningful Tourism in Post-Pandemic Times – New Tourism, new Education, with the three panellists Saira Akbar, CEO of GLOBAL, Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis, currently at the Hong Kong Polytechnical University, and Eduardo Santander, CEO of the European Travel Commission.

The other appearance will be used to introduce a new publication in the making called Emerging Tourism Destinations Development and Investment Index which COTRI is currently producing together with the ADVANTAGE: TOURISM Group on behalf of WTFI. This session will be chaired by Mr. Bulut Bagci, President of WTFI.

The event is by invitation only, not the least because Belgium still has strict CoViD-19 regulations, so that only 60 participants can be in the Sofitel conference hall. However, all panels, presentations and keynotes of the day will be live-streamed on the website https://www.globaltourismforum.org/global-tourism-forum-brussels/, starting from 10:00 h on Tuesday, Oct. 12th. The panel about tourism education will start at 11:40 O’Clock and the introduction of the ETD Index will begin at 14:30 h. If you missed the lifestream, all content will also be available on youtube a few days later.

For all readers, as always, all best wishes from Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt and the entire COTRI WEEKLY team!