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The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has announced that the theme for its 2014 Global Summit will be 'Changing world, new perspectives'.

The 14th Global Summit will be held at the Renaissance Hotel & Resort Centre in Sanya, Hainan Province, on 24th and 25th April.

The choice of theme reflects a desire to examine conventional wisdom about the world order and the place of the tourism industry within it. The Summit will present public and private sector leaders from outside and inside the industry who will examine historical perspectives and their relevance for the future. They will look at tourism from a new angle and seek to develop a new industry proposition that goes beyond the economic agenda, identifying how businesses can benefit from this new way of thinking.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan will present the keynote address at the Summit.

Introducing the Summit, WTTC President and Chief Executive David Scowsill explained "at our last two Summits, (former US) President Bill Clinton and (former UK Prime Minister) Tony Blair have told us that they view travel and tourism to be a driver of not only job creation and economic prosperity, but also a force for bringing peace and understanding to the world.

"Under the overall theme of 'Changing world, new perspectives', the Summit will challenge conventional wisdom and look at Travel & Tourism from new angles. It will go beyond the economic agenda to identify how businesses can benefit from new thinking and new ideas; new mindsets and new analyses.

"Travel and tourism is a growth industry. Driven by new markets in emerging economies around the world, travel and tourism has outpaced the growth of the global economy for the past decade and will continue to do so. But in an ever more uncertain world, can we rely on middle class growth in Asia to drive our industry forward globally? What is the role of the industry in the trade agenda? Or as a driver of peace, mutual understanding and security?"

The Global Summit will follow the success of WTTC's inaugural Asia Summit, which took place in Seoul, Korea, in September 2013. It is fitting that WTTC returns to Asia for the Global Summit 2014 the region will be in the vanguard of tourism development with annual growth in tourism expected to average 5 to 7% over the next ten years.

As the host nation for the Summit, China was the world's second largest tourism economy, in terms of total contribution to GDP, in 2012, and, by 2023 it will have become the world's largest tourism economy, displacing the USA.

Within this growth, the WTTC forecasts that tourism will create over 47 million new jobs in Asia over the next decade.

Explaining the choice of Hainan, China, for the next Global Summit, Scowsill added "following our summit in Beijing in 2010, we are coming to China again as it is a major driver of the global growth of our industry.

"Our economic research forecasts that travel and tourism in China will overtake the United States and contribute more to GDP than any other country in the world by 2023. According to a WTTC report on Hainan, China's only tropical island province and largest special economic zone, the Province has the potential to be a world-class tourism destination by 2020 a fitting location for our Global Summit."

In addition to President Clinton and Tony Blair, speakers at recent WTTC Summits include Robert Redford, Ted Turner, Felipe Calderon, Carlos Slim, the late Sir David Frost, Daryl Hannah, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan, and Prime Minister Chung Hongwon of the Republic of Korea.

For more information or to register to attend contact events@wttc.org or visit the website www.wttc.org

11th September 2013 - WTTC AND TONY BLAIR ISSUE CHALLENGE TO ENGAGE WITH ASIA’S BOOMING TOURISM INDUSTRY

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