Referents of the tourism sector throughout Latin America have been meeting since this Wednesday in Uruguay with the focus on the challenges for tourism during the post-pandemic reactivation stage.
In it Hotel Enjoy in Punta del Este started this wednesday oneer International Tourism Congress, within the framework of the 67th Regional Meeting for the Americas of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which will end this Thursday. During the activity, different specialists will be providing his vision on the main challenges that the sector will have in the face of the reactivation that is already being experienced.
The Minister of Tourism, Tabaré Vierakicked off the event and said that the sector lives “particular moments” in which you just got out of “a great crisis produced by the pandemic” and where “the recovery looms slowly”.
Along these lines, he pointed out that “The occasion was propitious and above all the situation to hold an open tourism congress“, with the objective of give participation to all those who would like to do so and who are linked to the sector.
Leonard Correa
Tabaré Viera, Minister of Tourism
The hierarch explained that the congress has the objective of “analyze among all the challenges at this time and at this juncture” in which there is also “new tourists” Y “vulnerabilities revealed” during the covid-19 crisis.
Viera put the focus on the “resilience” that the tourism sector has had during this crisis and said that it should serve to carry out an analysis and so that in the recovery process they can “establish guidelines, objectives and new ways of working” that allow preparation since “the crises are often not foreseeable”.
For its part, Ignacio Curbelo, General Director of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur) and general coordinator of the activitysaid to The Observer that these are days ofgreat satisfaction” for the sector but also of “responsibility”.
For Curbelo, this activity is “the ideal environment” for “meet the family of tourism” after two years of paralysis. Along these lines, he valued the participation of more than 500 people during the day on Wednesday and maintained that they will address the issue that “interest and concern the sector and that are current”.
The hierarch also informed that on Friday a seminar on the International Tourist Protection Code – prepared by the UNWTO in conjunction with its member states – which seeks to “bestow and unify” principles and recommendations for the protection of tourists in emergency situations and in which their consumer rights may be affected.
“It is a soft law code. This means that it is not binding or mandatory.. It is not imposed by the mere fact of being a member State of the UNWTO, but each country can take that code for itself and to the extent that it does not affect its internal legislation, it can partially or totally apply the provisions”, he clarified.
Congress tourism and other topics to be discussed
During the activity, there will also be a discussion about the situation of congress tourismwhich according to Curbelo “it was thought that it would be later but that today it is already in full activity”.
Congress tourism is one of the primary goals of the Mintur since, according to Curbelo, it is a tourism “with higher purchasing power” staying at “level hotels and high level gastronomy consumption” while also making purchases and leaving the country a significant amount of money.
Leonard Correa
Ignacio Curbelo, General Director of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Tourism
In turn, the hierarch indicated that congress tourism generates a very important workforce regarding the preparations that must be made to carry out the activity. “Everything related to audiovisual, gastronomic, hotel and transportation services. It is an activity that spreads and dynamizes the economy of the city or the department in which it is located.. In addition, it has the particularity that that tourist who comes, in a high percentage they return after having known the destination but with another purpose that is vacation tourism”, he explained.
Viera also referred to congress tourism and said that “It is an excellent area to strengthen in this recovery, for everything that MICE tourism means (Meeting, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions) in the world”. In this sense, he said that it is an objective of Uruguay, tralower, develop and strengthen meeting tourism, for all that the spillover implies in other activities.
The debate during the activity will also address what is related to the “new technologies in tourismthe new forms of accommodation through digital platforms, investments in the tourism sector and what are the benefits, incentives and facilities that Uruguay grants to those investors who decide to come and invest”.
Rapprochement with Paraguay
The Minister Viera and the Minister of Tourism of Paraguay, Sofía Montielthey signed a Cooperation agreement with which they point to carry out a joint action plan on sustainable tourism.
The objective of the cooperation is the exchange of information, experiences and advice; organization of training and training for officials in person and virtually; and the development of projects or activities linked to the area of cooperation.
Leonard Correa
Minister of Tourism Tabaré Viera together with the Paraguayan Minister of Tourism, Sofía Montiel
“We will be exchanging technicians and experiences, particularly on topics such as statistical data, processing and handling of such datasomething that we are also trying to improve and deepen together with the National Statistics Institute (INE). Also, we will be trying to promote both countries with cross visits with various operators to continue expanding the Mercosur markets”, Viera told The Observer.
The minister also reported that He will be meeting with authorities from Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Brazil, among other meetings on a vast agenda.
