Tag Archives: Taleb Rifai

Middle East Tourism Investment Summit will be two-fold organised by ITIC in partner-ship with ATM. The in-person summit will be held in Dubai on Wednesday 19 May and will be followed by a virtual summit on 27 May. The theme will be ‘Invest-Rebuild-Restart the tourism industry in the Middle East’. The Middle East is standing out as the region offering the most exciting tourism prospects following the Covid-19 vaccination campaigns that have been successfully rolled out. Taleb Rifai, Chairman of ITIC and former Secretary-General of UNWTO stated, “We are delighted to host in partnership with ATM our face-to-face Tourism Investment Summit after 18 months and to regroup industry leaders to discuss the investment opportu-nities, challenges, issues and the way forward for the future. “ For his part, Ibrahim Ayoub, ITIC’s Group CEO, expressed his confidence that the vaccination campaigns will contribute to the rapid restart of international flights. “Dubai has already set the example of the successful reopening of its airspace and country to foreign visitors. We expect that other countries especially in the Middle East which have properly managed the Covid-19 pandemic, to follow”, he added. “Their resilience needs to be commended.” Industry decision-makers such as Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports; Nicolas Mayer, Global Tourism Leader of PWC; Scott Livermore, Chief Economist of Oxford Economics, Middle East; H.E. Nayef Al-Fayez, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Jordan; HE Marwan Bin Jassim Al Sarkal, Executive Chairman Sharjah Investment and Development Authority; Raki Phillips, CEO Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority; H.E. Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry, Director General, Ajman Tourism Development Department; Bastien Blanc, Managing Director, IHG Hotels & Resorts KSA; Marc Descrozaille, COO, Accor Hotels, India, Middle East & Africa; …

The final day of WTM London 2017 concluded with WTM Festivals, allowing visitors to experience the culture, hospitality and cuisine of the Caribbean, Tokyo, Indonesia, Ecuador, Bulgaria, Ghana, Senegal and Brazil. Pertinent issues such as Brexit, overtourism and development were debated among the tourism ministers’ agenda. The annual UNWTO and WTM Ministers Summit debated strategies to cope with overtourism, which is threatening the tourism trade in destinations such as Barcelona, Venice and Amsterdam. Taleb Rifai, Secretary General, UNWTO, said there have been many protests against overtourism in 2017, with slogans such as “tourists go home” and “tourists are terrorists.” He warned, “We cannot continue to build five-star hotels in three-star communities. We need to diversify visitors’ activities, reduce seasonality and raise awareness of less busy destinations.” WTM brought together the leadership of the International Hotel Investment Forum and WTM London’s expertise to create an exclusive platform for ministers and investors in travel destination development. Keith Evans, Vice President Hotels, Starwood Capital, highlighted Greece’s potential, “There’s a good strong fundamental tour infrastructure; Greece is setting itself up as a market that has an interesting few years ahead.”