WTTC to hold 22nd Global Summit in Saudi Arabia
The WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council) recently made an announcement that the 22nd Global Summit will be held in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh by the end of the next year. The council also stated that the country has been a global leader in redesigning tourism. So, the summit will showcase the industry leaders getting together with the major government representatives to support the current recovery of the sector. This will lead to a more sustainable, inclusive, resilient, and safer future.
The nation is focused on regaining the tourism and lifting the industry thereby, which is why it has begun to allow people to enter after obtaining the Saudi Arabia online visa. Not only does the online process make it easier but also safer in terms of health. So if you wish to know more about the summit that will be taking place, this article will tell you all about it. In fact, you will also why this event being held in this particular country. So without delaying further, let us begin.
Why does the Event Matter?
Since the nation of Saudi Arabia will be the host for the 22nd WTTC Summit, it will bring the country into the spotlight, especially in terms of tourism. Earlier, the the country has been hampered from reaching its peak in tourism, mostly because of the perception that the laws there are very restrictive and unfriendly toward specific categories of travellers. For instance, women and people who are part of the LGBTQ community have not been well supported and have often been discriminated against. Saudi Arabia now gets the chance to prove to the world that it is a viable and inclusive option for travelling, especially for global visitors travelling from all nations of the world. This is extremely crucial for the country majorly because it needs to recover its travel industry that has been severely impacted due to COVID pandemic.
Why Saudi Arabia?
According to WTTC, the pandemic has caused people to put their lives on pause. This has also resulted in a complete standstill for international travel. However, Saudi Arabia has demonstrated its entire commitment and dedication to the sector, making sure that it remained in the front row of the global agenda. Not only has it led the recovery of this sector but also thereby helped improve the livelihoods, jobs, and economies all over the world. Therefore, the WTTC is grateful for the same and wishes to recognize the country’s efforts through bringing the entire sector to the place in 2022.
As a response, the country has stated that the forum is crucial for the government and private sector to gather for redesigning tourism for the upcoming years and it’s amazing for them to hold the event in the Kingdom. This also recognizes Saudi’s leadership for aiding the recovery of the global tourism sector and thus, result in higher level of sustainability.
Tourism Sector of Saudi Arabia
According to research, tourism in the Middle East has been growing more rapidly as compared to Latin America and Europe. In fact, WTTC’s research states that the sector is likely to augment by 27.1 percent by the end of the year. Furthermore, it is highly possible that the jobs in this sector reach to about 6.6 millions the upcoming year. This is equivalent to the number of jobs that existed in the tourism sector prior to the pandemic.
When is the next Global Summit?
The 21st Global Summit will be held in Manila, Philippines from 14 March 2022 to 16 March 2022. The highly anticipated summit will have major leaders from the travel and tourism sector, who will come together with government representatives for aligning the efforts for supporting the sector’s recovery. Although the summit’s key speakers as well as the themes have yet to be announced, the WTTC has stated that details are soon forthcoming. This follows March 2021’s summit, which was held successfully in Cancun, Mexico. The virtual/physical hybrid summit demonstrated great praise for the response of the sector to the current pandemic along with a call for the private and public sectors to work with one another for helping the world to recovery from the post-COVID situation. The event had more than 600 participants who came from 70 countries from all over the world. And because of the COVID, over 30,000 individuals connected virtually through the hybrid online/in-person feature.
It was announced by the WTTC that lacking in international coordination, slower rates of vaccination and travel restrictions have greatly impacted the recovery of the travel and tourism sector negatively.
The Bottom Line
The recovery of the tourism sector is extremely crucial since it’s a major part of the economy. For the same reason, the 22nd WTTC Global Summit will be held in Saudi Arabia for redesigning the sector.
Photo by ekrem osmanoglu on Unsplash
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