TUI Group chief executive Peter Long will head up an impressive line up of private sector speakers at the UNWTO & WTM Ministers’ Summit. Long, who runs the largest travel organisation in Europe, is joined by Cox & Kings CEO Peter Kerkar and World Travel and Tourism Council president and CEO David Scowsill in the private sector delegation at the summit.
The fifth and largest UNWTO & World Travel Market Ministers’ Summit, sponsored by National Geographic, on Tuesday November 8 at ExCeL London will look at How Tourism Can Prosper in Times of Uncertainly.
Other private sector speakers at the summit, which will play host to around 200 ministers and senior aides, include Etihad Airways vice president of International Affairs Vijay Poonoosamy and Pacific Asia Travel Association chairman Hiran Cooray.
It is the second time in three years Long has taken part in the Ministers’ Summit having been on the private sector panel in 2009.
Tourism ministers already confirmed include: HE Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism, Jamaica, HE Trond Giske, Minister of Trade and Industry, Norway, HE Fatou Mas Jobe-Njie, Minister of Tourism and Culture, Gambia, HE Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism, South Africa and HE Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen, Minister of Tourism, Malaysia. The summit with be moderated by National Geographic Traveller Magazine editor-in-chief Keith Bellows.
“We are very happy to see the growing participation of the industry at this event,” said UNWTO secretary-general, Taleb Rifai. ”The UNWTO & WTM Ministers’ Summit is becoming a key moment of discussion between public and private sector on the main issues facing the sector; this is particularly important as public-private partnerships become ever more relevant in challenging moments.”