WTTC 2014: Peru revealed as host for Americas Summit
Peru will host the World Travel & Tourism Council’s Americas Summit, to be held in Lima on September 10th-11th 2014.
This decision follows president Ollanta Humala receiving the Open Letter from UNWTO and WTTC in 2012 as part of the Global Leaders for Tourism Campaign, in which the head of state recognises the positive role played by tourism in the economic development of their country.
To be held in partnership with MINCETUR, Peru’s tourism ministry, the Americas Summit will bring together the public sector and leading private sector organisations from North, Central, South America and the Caribbean to engage in a constructive debate on a range of global tourism issues in the Americas regional context.
Speakers will include chief executives from regional and global hotel companies, airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, travel management and online agencies; ministers of tourism; high level representatives from the NGO sector; and opinion formers from the world of finance, business and the media.
WTTC president David Scowsill said: “The Summit will have a pan-American focus and address economic and travel-related issues, which are of vital importance to one of the world’s most important tourism regions.
“Our industry is a major generator of economic wealth and jobs in the region, so the Summit will ask what more the public and private sectors can do to generate long-term sustainable growth in tourism in the Americas.”
Tourism is a major driver of economic growth and job creation across the Americas.
According to WTTC economic research, the industry contributes $2 trillion to the economy of the region and accounts for 40 million jobs, with one million jobs forecast to be added every year for the next decade.
According to the latest WTTC research, tourism accounts for nine per cent of Peru’s economy, generating one million jobs or one in 12 of all jobs in the country.
Travel GDP is larger than that of the education, banking, communication services, higher education, chemicals manufacturing, and automotive manufacturing sectors.