Tag Archives: Suman Billa

The MENA region has world class infrastructure and a very strong aviation sector, stated Suman Billa, Director, Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Development, UNWTO in his opening remarks. “In 2003 we had the SARS crisis which dropped tourism by 0.4% then in 2009 the global economic crisis which resulted the tourism industry to drop by 4% but today we are looking at a drop from 58% to 78% now this is unprecedented and there is no experience for us to cope with this. To my mind there is no business contingency plan or a government support programme that can handover to tourism sector to come out of it without any pain. At the same time we must understand that tourism all over the world are in difficult position and in order to sustain that we do not have the luxury to wait for a vaccine to come. MENA region has been very robust that their global share is 6% and by 2030 we thought it would move up to 8%. There is nothing to suggest that the robustness of growth and development in this region is going to slow down. One of the most important in this region is that most oil economies are looking at tourism to see as to how they can diversify from their overhead reliance on oil. And they have got some extremely strong products such as culture, fantastic shopping and MICE are some of the products they are strong.” It was his opinion that the best way forward as we are still to find a vaccine or even a cure for the pandemic that it is better to look at localised bubbles to be promoted …

TravTalk Middle East’s second virtual conclave will take place on Monday July 20, 2020 from 11am until 1.15pm. To participate please contact Crisna de Guzman at crisna.deguzman@ddppl.com or call +971505074618, +971554704200. The main theme of the Digital conclave is Building and enabling trust in the travel and tourism sector. It will be conducted as two sessions; each will be for one hour. The first session will begin by 11am and end by 12 noon with three key speakers in the Middle East region; HE Khalid Jassim Al Midfa, Chairman Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA), Raki Philips – Chief Executive Officer Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority and Suman Billa – Director Technical Corporation and Silk Road Development UNWTO. As the UAE has open to international visitors, this is the perfect opportunity to find out the many efforts undertaken by the relevant tourism boards and the UNWTO. The second session will commence after a 15 minute break at 12.15pm and end by 1.15pm; this session will take into account outbound travel with three key national tourism boards with the most number of visitors from the UAE and GCC region. Speakers will be Daniel Rosado Bayon – Director of the Spanish Tourism Office in Abu Dhabi; Pichaya Saisaengchan, Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Dubai &The Middle East Office and Yamina Sofo – Director, Sales & Marketing – German National Tourist Office, Gulf countries.