ISTO Europe believes it is necessary to renew its relationship with local and regional authorities. "We must strengthen our role as an essential partner of public policies," it says.
The major health and economic crisis that we are going through mistreats each one of us, as parents, friends, citizens, or tourism professionals... It also questions the actors of tourism for all that we are. What development do we wish to propose and defend? Economic crisis, identity crisis, from today it seems that the tourist environment is permanently impacted and that some of the development models advocated yesterday will no longer be acceptable tomorrow. We all hope that the values of social, sustainable and responsible tourism, source of strong local economies, investments and sustainable jobs, will become the pillars of a redefined tourist economy.
This tourism is the DNA of ISTO and it is in the sharing of this vision that the European section, in coherence with the one proposed by Isabel Novoa, president of ISTO International, inscribes its action.
The values we hold are more relevant than ever and we will strengthen our influence in the proposal of public policies in tourism. We believe it is necessary to renew our relationship with local and regional authorities, starting with Europe and its institutions, around a proclamation of who we are, of our commitment, but also of our achievements. We must strengthen our role as an essential partner of public policies, by experimenting and communicating on concrete actions that notably allow us to strengthen the visitor/visitor link, to ensure as much as possible an equitable development of the territories, and to reinforce a tourism accessible to all.
With all the members of the Europe Committee, we wish that the section of ISTO Europe will be this laboratory of ideas, and we hope that this year will allow us to meet again to exchange, share and build new collective proposals for a fairer, more sustainable and more responsible tourism, accessible to all. This challenge can only be met with the participation of each and every one of us.
