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The Mauritius Ministry of Tourism has initiated a global conference that will address the current status, trends, challenges and growth opportunities of digitalisation in the broader tourism sector. The International Conference on Digitalisation and Sustainable Tourism will take place in Mauritius on May 23-24.
The conference will bring together high-level policy makers, including ministers of tourism, CEOs of tourism boards, specialists, academics and experts, to reflect on the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation for the tourism industry. With tourism being one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors in the world, contributing 10% toward global GDP, accounting for 10% of total global employment, and 7% of its exports (to the equivalent of US1.4trn in 2016) – according to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) – it has been called an engine of economic growth. International tourist arrivals have increased from 25m in 1950 to 1.24bn in 2016 with tourism receipts attained equalling US$1.22trn (€990bn). And it is forecast that the number of tourist arrivalswill reach 1.8bn by 2030.
With the knowledge that tourism is a driver of financial contribution, job creation, and tourism-destination sustainability, a conference of this nature is valuable to understand the challenges that the global tourism sector faces – such as climate change, digitalisation and sustainability – as well as the benefits of working individually and collaboratively to expand the respective destinations’ desirability to visitors.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has seen an explosion in advancement, enhancing connectivity and interaction between national and international players, and is a vehicle for the communication of sustainable tourism. However, destinations are slow in the adoption of technology into their existing systems – and this is where the power of the International Conference on Digitalisation and Sustainable Tourism lies.
The itinerary includes sessions on technology transformation and tourism; redefining destination marketing strategy in the digital era; challenges to the digitalisation of the tourism sector; fostering sustainable tourism development in today’s high-tech globalised world; technology, climate change and sustainable tourism; and the future orientation of the tourism industry.
Source: tourismupdate.co.za
