LEADERS SUMMIT EUROPE 2022 BRUSSELS

Leaders Summit Europe
September 6, 2022
Venue: Radisson Collection Hotel, Grand Place Brussels
Room: Royal A-B

Overview

Tourism is a major economic activity in the European Union with wide-ranging impact on economic growth, employment, and social development. It can be a powerful tool in fighting economic decline and unemployment. Nevertheless, the tourism sector faces a series of challenges. EU has worked hard to address these with strong policies and actions. Despite all the challenges, the outlook for 2021 and 2022 is for considerable recovery across Europe. This is good news for the rest of the world and, for developing countries with most tourism potential and demand, as chances are EU may become the poster child for the pent-up demand for travel and tourism reboot.

The aforementioned, and upcoming Hybrid Summit, at the iconic capital of Europe, Brussels, is an opportunity to rethink, reimagine ‘meaningful’ tourism of tomorrow. This needs to be built on certain verticals, powered by digitization, and sustainable investments into human capital and infrastructure. The event participation will include other past present heads of states, various ministerial level attendance and the wider Travel and Tourism industry stakeholders, corporations, and leaders.

2022 Agenda

GLOBAL TOURISM FORUM (GTF)

Message From General Secretary – Taleb Rifai.

The need for a paradigm shift in global tourism existed long before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The very success of international tourism, with five times the number of trips in 2019 compared to the year 1980, often made a mockery of the idea of hospitality and ran in many places a juggernaut over local nature, local culture, authenticity, diversity and serendipity, negatively impacting satisfaction levels of all stakeholders involved. Gigantic cruise ships, all-inclusive resorts, overcrowded beaches and disneyfied tourist cities are all examples of forms of tourism organisation which in effect prevents meaningful guest-host encounters and do not help to fight seasonality and its consequences of low yield, low wages and seasonal employment in many European destinations.

By 2019, overtourism, ecological degradation and increasing protests of host communities already signalled the need to change the structure of global tourism. The pandemic has increased the perception of the importance of travel and tourism for the global economy and provided a chance to pause and rethink the future of tourism.

The Leaders Summit Brussels is the right place at the right time to review what has been done already and even more importantly what still needs to be done to move forward to a more meaningful and sustainable tourism in Europe and around the world, to balance the interests of hosts, guests, employees and owners of service provider companies in hospitality and tourism and not least the environment.

The dialogue between political and industry leaders from European and global countries, organisations and companies will help to find new ways to use the tools of digitalization, training, and empowerment and of political support and guidance to not only find a way out of the crisis, but to move forward to a new, better ‘normal’.

Conference Co-Chairs

Ismail Ertug, Member of the European Parliament

Ismail Ertug, MEP and vice-president of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, was born in Amberg, Germany, in 1975. After his studies, he held various positions at the German Central Health Insurance Fund.

He was elected to the European Parliament in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Since then, he has been a member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN).

During his second term, he was the coordinator of the S&D Group in the TRAN committee and a member of the Delegation for relations with Southeast Asian countries and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Since 2019, Mr Ertug has been vice-chair of the S&D Group. In addition, he remains a full member of the TRAN committee and is a substitute for the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. He is also a member of the Delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula (DARP).

Mr Ertug always stands up for the rights of rail passengers, aiming to simplify cross-border travel and to regulate guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network.

José Ramón Bauzà, Member of the European Parliament

José Ramón Bauzá Díaz is a Spanish politician and the president of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands from 2011 to 2015. Born to a Majorcan father and a mother native to Madrid, he is licensed as a pharmacist by the Complutense University of Madrid. He owns his own pharmacy in his hometown of Marratxí.

Program

Time	6 September 2022
09:45 – 09:50	WELCOME Maria Ramos, Master of Ceremony, Journalist, TV News Anchor
09:50 – 10:05	OPENING REMARKS Ismail Ertug, Member of European Parliament José Ramón Bauzà, Member of European Parliament Bulut Bağcı, President of WTFI
10:10 – 10:20	KEYNOTE Dimitris Papadimoulis, Vice President of European Parliament
10.20 -10.35	KEYNOTE Adina-Ioana Vălean, European Commissioner for Transport
10:40 – 11:10	SESSION 1: MOBILITY CHALLENGES & NEW TRENDS Ismail Ertug (Member of European Parliament) (Moderator) Henrik Hololei, Director-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission Eduardo Santander, CEO, European Travel Commission József Váradi, CEO, Wizz Air
11:10 – 11:40	KEYNOTE on CHANGE Federico J. González, CEO Radisson Hotels Group
11:40 – 12:00	1:1 Conversation – BIG EVENTS AND IMPACT ON TOURISM: The case of FIFA World Cup José Ramón Bauzá Díaz, Member of European Parliament, (Moderator) Akbar Al Baker, Chairman of Qatar Tourism
12:00 – 12:15	KEYNOTE: A Global Initiative: Making Tourism Part of the Solution Gloria Guevara, Chief advisor Saudi Ministry of Tourism
12:15 – 13:20	NETWORKING LUNCH
13:20 – 13:30	Video message from the host of GTF ANNUAL MEETING 2022 Sandiaga Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia
13:30 – 14:00	SESSION 2: A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR TRAVEL & TOURISM Cristina Núñez, NECSTouR (Moderator) Claudia Monteiro de Aguiar, Member of the European Parliament Peter Gerber, CEO Brussels Airlines Marie-Caroline Laurent, Director General Europe of CLIA Willy Walsh, Director General IATA
14:00 – 14:30	SESSION 3: DIGITALIZATION & BLOCKCHAIN IN TRAVEL Jeannette Ceja, TV Host and Travel Journalist (moderator) Eric Dresin, Secretary General, ECTAA Claudia Tapardel, Chief Communication Officer of Ariva Emmanuel Mounier, EU Travel Tech Josianne Cutajar, Member of the European Parliament
14:30 – 14:40	KEYNOTE Thomas Emanuel, Senior Director STR
14:40 – 15:10	COFFEE BREAK
15:10 – 15:25	KEYNOTE Vladimir Norov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Uzbekistan
15:25 – 15:45	SESSION 4: NEW INVESTMENTS MODELS FOR TRAVEL & TOURISM Bulut Bağcı, President of WTFI, Moderator Hugues Mbadinga Madiya, Minister, Promotion & Investment Gabon Mounira Hassaballah, Minister of Tourism, Republic of Tchad István Ujhelyi, Member of the European Parliament
15:45 – 15:55	KEYNOTE Valentina Superti, Director in charge of tourism, DG GROW (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs), European Commission.
15:55 – 16:30	SESSION 5: DESTINATION 2030: SMART TOURISM & RESILIENCE Neslihan Gundes, Executive Director World Tourism Forum (Moderator) Caroline Leboucher, CEO Atout France Marian Muro, CEO, Barcelona Tourism Patrick Bontinck, CEO Visit Brussels Inge Janssen, Director Europe of Booking.com Ali Rafat, CEO of SKIFT
16:30 – 17:00	SESSION 6: WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN TOURISM Claudia Tapardel, former MEP (Moderator) Yulia Stark, President, EWA European Women’s Association Elena Kountoura, Member of the European Parliament Jeannette Ceja, TV Host and Travel Journalist Cristina Núñez, NECSTouR
17:00 – 17:10	KEYNOTE Angela Gerekou President, Greek National Tourism Organization, GNTO
17:10 -17:30	SESSION 7: DESIGN, DELIVERY AND OPERATIONS OF NEW DESTINATIONS Erdal Seyhan, CEO of World Tourism Fund & Investment (Moderator) Dan Anderson, Director of Fourth Street London
17:30 – 17:40	Closing Remarks