Thursday, September 30, 2021
The second edition of TIS – Tourism Innovation Summit 2021, which will be held from November 10 to 12 in Seville, will focus on the great challenge that urgently needs to be addressed in the tourism industry: sustainability.
The tourism industry, not only for Spain, is vital for the economies of many countries. Specifically, 10% of global GDP is attributed to tourism activity. Therefore, it is not surprising that, due to the great economic activity it generates, tourism is reflected as one of the economic activities that has the most impact on the planet.
According to an international study carried out by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) , 80% of the waste detected on the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea comes from tourism. For its part, the study Top countries for sustainable tourism carried out by Euromonitor, also states that only 55% of travel companies applied some type of sustainability strategy in 2020, compared to 70% of the consumer packaged goods industry.
The survival of the sector depends, to a large extent, on discovering formulas that allow them to continue growing and, at the same time, reduce as much as possible the levels of pollution generated by tourist activities and passenger transport. For this reason, Silvia Avilés, director of TIS2021 affirms that ” this year’s edition will be a great opportunity for industry experts and professionals to share solutions and real success stories on how to transform our industry towards a more sustainable model” .
According to the UN, almost 25% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions come from the transport sector. This makes it the biggest contributor to air pollution in European cities. Sustainability in the mobility industry will be one of the main debates at the congress with experts such as Davide Triacca , Secretary General and director of the sustainability area of Costa Crociere, who will explain the challenges of cruises in terms of sustainability. Also the CEOs of Iberia and Vueling, Javier Sánchez Prieto and Marco Sansavini , respectively, will make known how they are working from the airlines to reduce the environmental impact produced by airplanes.
Likewise, representatives of different tourist destinations will also share their strategies to reduce the environmental impact in their regions and make them more sustainable destinations. This is the case of Latin America, where responsible tourism is still very incipient, but it has a lot of growth potential. That is why the Tourism Innovation Global Summit will dedicate several sessions in which the opportunities for responsible and sustainable tourism in Latin American countries will be analyzed, as well as the digitization of the sector in that region. In addition, it will bring together the main airlines to review how the reduction of pollution, emissions and noise, generated by air transport, is being carried out.
For their part, the CEOs of organizations such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, Randy Durband , and of Sustainable Travel International, Paloma Zapata , will share what tourism companies can do to face the current climate change problem and will expose the keys to the great transformation that the sector will have to carry out in environmental matters to collaborate in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN for 2030.
Companies such as Mabrian, together with Mastercard, have developed a dashboard of tourism sustainability indicators based on the observation of data at a global level, which will allow this monitoring to be carried out under a corroborated and stable criterion over time. A project that will be presented for the first time at TIS2021. “ Sustainability is going to be the cornerstone of the tourist reactivation under a new model. However, there is a great void of tools and indicators that allow to measure and monitor the evolution of these concepts by the managers of destinations and tourism companies ”, highlighted Alex Villeyra, COO of Mabrian.
“ Without any doubt, finding a way to become a sustainable industry is the greatest challenge facing our society, and the tourism sector, as an economic and social development engine, must address it without delay in order to build a more efficient and respectful industry. and a better world ”, says Edgar Weggelaar, director of the TIS congress, Tourism Innovation Summit .
For three days, Seville will bring together more than 5,000 professionals from different segments of the tourism industry such as hotels, airlines, tour operators, distribution channels, the MICE and business travel sector, and tourist destinations, to find a technological partner and discover new solutions with the ones that boost your business.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Saturday, April 20, 2024
