The Consell and the World Tourism Organization bring together the best specialists in tourism sustainability in Palma at the international summit ‘Leading the Transformation’.

The Palau de Congressos de Palma has hosted the first day of the Sustainable Destinations Summit organized by the Fundació Mallorca Turisme del Consell, in coordination with the World Tourism Organization.

‘Leading the transformation’ aims to promote knowledge of the best practices of environmental, social and economic sustainability that are being developed in the world. For this reason, speakers from different territories are taking part, exchanging knowledge and experiences around the challenges of water and waste management, the circular economy, data analysis for sustainable decision-making and human development. The participants are institutional representatives, private companies and civil society, among whom there are academics, businessmen, journalists and professionals who lead sustainable initiatives around the world.

At the same time, Mallorca is also projecting itself internationally for two days as a sustainable destination. In total, there are 230 attendees. There are also another 100 people who follow it online.

The president of the Consell, Catalina Cladera; Isabel Oliver, from the Office of the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization and the mayor of Palma, José Hila, have inaugurated the event, organized by the Fundació Mallorca Turisme and the UNWTO.

Cladera has expressed his satisfaction that Mallorca is "the world capital of sustainable tourism during the celebration of this international summit" and has assured that "we are not satisfied with that, we want to continue being so beyond this meeting."

"Mallorca has everything to be a benchmark in sustainable tourism," he told the president.

"We are a leading destination worldwide, with quality and throughout the year, with a cutting-edge sector and we have already done work with pioneering laws such as those on climate change, waste and the new tourism law and above all, we have institutions that mobilize resources to accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable tourism model, with a historic investment from Fons Next Generation."

The president took the opportunity to highlight, during her speech, the "shared will of the institutions, the private sector, economic and social agents and the Mallorcan society to work towards a more sustainable model of environmental tourism, socially and economically." Finally, she pointed out: "We are working hand in hand with the UNWTO and we have already asked that this not be the last time we organize a meeting like this, that we can do another one in the coming years."

"It is not by chance that we are in Mallorca, it is being in the right place" said Bel Oliver, referring to the work done in "innovation, the capacity for adaptation of the tourism sector and the will of the governments of Mallorca, the autonomous region and Spain to promote tourism that respects human rights and is sustainable."

On the other hand, Hila explained: "It is an honour for Palma to host the Sustainable Destinations Summit, a topic of vital importance for our city and our islands. It is an opportunity to implement in our daily lives and that will allow us to continue moving forward and learn practices of environmental, social and economic sustainability."

Speakers and programme

The programme includes the presence of leading experts in each of the subjects up for debate as speakers.

On this first day, the Minister of Transition, Tourism and Sports, Andreu Serra, started the presentations with the presentation "Mallorca, leading the transition towards regenerative tourism".

The first round table of the summit then featured the presentation of institutional experiences in water management, such as those of the Balearic Islands (with Miquel Mir, Minister of the Environment and Territory), Valencia (with Jaume Mata, head of the tourism sustainability area of ​​Visit Valencia) and the Maldives (with Asad Riza, Deputy Minister of Tourism). Aniol Esteban, director of the Marilles Foundation, and Stefan Gössling, professor at the School of Business and Economics of the University of Linnaeus (Sweden), also participated. The moderator was Tolo Deyà, vice-dean of the Faculty of Tourism at the UIB.

Representatives from the private sector (Sandra Benbeniste, director of Sustainability EMEA-Iberostar Hotels, and Miguel González San Roman, director of Business Development at Minsait/Indra) and institutions (Antonio Pérez, mayor of Benidorm) also spoke on solid waste management. In addition, the experiences of civil society in the United States were heard, in the voice of Nina Bellucci Butler, CEO of Stina, and Andy Schroeder, co-founder of a project to recover ocean plastics. The round table was moderated by Toni Munar (Turismoconsulting).

The afternoon will begin with presentations on the circular economy, moderated by José María de Juan (Koan Consulting). The president of Segittur, Enrique Martínez, will participate; the director of the Impulsa Foundation, Antoni Riera; the auditor of Garden Hotels, Jaume Ordinas; and the Deputy Director of the Turkish Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, Elif Balcı Fisunoğlu.

Finally, the first day of the summit will end with the Data Analysis for Decision Making in Tourism Sustainability Initiatives block. The debate will be moderated by Dolores Ordóñez, General Manager at AnySolution, and will be attended by Dirk Glaesser, Director of the UNWTO Sustainable Development Programme; Luis Javier Gadea, Director of Tourism Research, Development and Innovation at Segittur; José Javier Ramasco, CSIC Researcher at IFISC (CSIC-UIB); Sergio Guerreiro, Director of Knowledge Management and Innovation at Turismo de Portugal; and Carlos Cendra, Partner at Mabrian Technologies.

Sources: Consell de Mallorca