Pedro Sánchez advocates sustainable tourism from environmental, cultural and social perspective

Congress and Exhibition Centre, Seville

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, travelled to Seville on Wednesday to take part in the WTTC Global Summit organised by the Travel & Tourism Council - the global tourism sector organisation - and supported by the Regional Government of Andalusia, the City Council of Seville and Turespaña. The 2019 edition seeks to address the main concerns of the sector in terms of changes in business models, innovation, digitalisation and economic and environmental sustainability.

In his speech, President of the Government Sánchez underlined the need to boost sustainable tourism from an environmental, cultural and social perspective and remarked that the tourism sector must be a fundamental player in enhancing the social and territorial cohesion of countries and societies, where tourism, sustainability, efficiency and social cohesion should go hand-in-hand.

Pedro Sánchez praised the value of tourism as a source of human progress, tolerance and solidarity instead of "walls and introversion", stressing that it represents a way of understanding and of seeing the world that is being brought into question at this time, committing to open societies, cultural intermingling and tolerance, and highlighted the vital experience of travel as a tool for self-awareness. "Through travel, you can see more people and see them better, but you also get to know yourself more and better and out of this dual exploration the very best of human beings is born", he said.

The President of the Government considers it a source of pride to head up the government of "one of the most tolerant countries in the world", a reality that "is due, to a great extent, to us also being the leading global tourism power", he stressed. Pedro Sánchez recalled that in 2018, Spain beat all the sector records, in terms of the number of inbound tourists - 82.6 million - up 0.9% on the 2017 figure, and in terms of spending of almost 90 billion euros, 3.1% up on the previous year.

Pool Moncloa / Fernando CalvoWith a similar number of hotel rooms as Germany, France and Italy - some 2 million - Spain recorded six times more overnight stays by inbound tourists than Germany (220 million compared with 68 million), three times more than France (220 million compared with 76 million) and double the number of Italy (220 million compared with 136 million). This growth is down to its "own merits and not due to external uncertainties", he stressed. "Those who visit Spain come back", he said, "because our country has the endless capacity to surprise travellers".

Pedro Sánchez encouraged this success to be repeated in 2019 - the "year of consolidation" he said, in which "we must tackle the present challenges", such as ongoing innovation, opening up new destinations, sustainability, de-seasonalisation and the creation of stable, quality jobs. In this regard, Pedro Sánchez called for the need to boost rural tourism, an area with great potential for growth, he remarked, that represents a "great opportunity for the future" in countering rural depopulation.

The Summit was attended by the former US President, Barack Obama, the former President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, the Tourism Ministers of Egypt and Greece, Rania Al-Mashat and Elena Kountoura, respectively, the President of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Juan Moreno Bonilla and its Vice-President, Juan Marín, the Mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Trade, Reyes Maroto, and the State Secretary for Tourism, Isabel Oliver, the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili, the Chairman of Amadeus, Luis Maroto, the CEO of Hyperloop, Dirk Ahlborgn and the Chairman of Telefónica, José Mª Álvarez Pallete.

Non official translation