The July general meeting of the ICTP in Victoria, in the Seychelles has been the opportunity for this tourism body to relook at its strategies for its way forward.  The International Council of Tourism Partners (ICTP) remains the tourism body working side by side with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), but it remains at the same time the only tourism organization that gives a say to tourism operators alongside their respective tourism boards.

It was already a couple of years ago that Mr. Juergen Steinmetz, publisher of eTurboNews; Mr. Geoffrey Lipman, Professor of Victoria U&Oxford Brookes; Mr. Alain St.Ange, Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and President of the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Regional Organisation; and Mr. Feizol Hashim, Strategic Consultant - all tourism professionals in their own right - got together to launch a worldwide tourism organization to bring together governments, tourism boards, and above all, hotel companies, airlines, cruise ship companies, and tour operators to sit together and work for the advancement of the tourism industry.

From humble beginnings, the tourism organization today has 425 members from the four corners of the globe. From an initial launching ceremony at the Seychelles stand at World Travel Market (WTM), ICTP held its first General Meeting in Seychelles in July of this year. Since then, the membership has been growing at an incredible pace. This is why the Board of the ICTP is moving to ensure that its membership base reflects the reason for their existence.

ICTP is the only worldwide tourism organization from the ground up. It puts people and those running tourism before organizations, and it remains adamant that this structure will be safeguarded. Today’s membership is broken down in the following groupings:

102 destination members
146 associate members
173 media members
4 airports and airlines
Total: 425 members as of October 9, 2012

Online tourism news website, eTurboNews.com, has been steadfast in their support of ICTP and it has been giving due coverage to members as they join the organization. This is in itself a great opportunity for an individual tourism, hospitality company, airline company, etc. to have the opportunity to be seen on the world stage through an indirect editorial.

In September, ICTP took the floor at the World Routes Forum in Abu Dhabi with its President, Professor Geoffrey Lipman, chairing a session entitled “World Tourism Networking.” This new visibility approach by the organization provided added benefits for all its members.

Professor Geoffrey Lipman, Mr. Juergen Steinmetz, Minister Alain St.Ange, and Mr. Feizol Hashim have come together again to echo an appeal for the tourism private sector members from across the world to join ICTP and to have a say in what happens to the industry that remains as volatile as always and that needs continuous nurturing.