Activities

The president of the Cluster spoke at the opening of the third Meeting of directors and managers of Hotel and Tourism of Galicia, held in Santiago.

A large group of professionals from the tourism sector met on Thursday 23 February at the OCA Puerta del Camino hotel in Santiago de Compostela to take part in the third Meeting of Directors and Managers of Hotel and Tourism in Galicia, organised by the Galician delegation of the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers to discuss some of the most immediate challenges facing hotel establishments in particular and the entire sector in general.

The Galicia Tourism Cluster was also present as a sponsor of the conference along with the Xunta de Galicia and Vodafone. The president of this entity, Cesáreo Pardal, was precisely one of those in charge of opening the session together with the president of the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers, Manuel Vegas. In his speech, Cesáreo Pardal stressed that talent retention is one of the great challenges of the sector after “the flight of professionals to other sectors during the pandemic” and indicated that, although 2022 was a year of recovery, it was also a year marked by a lack of professionals. “Reversing this situation is a priority for the sector”, said the president of the Cluster, pointing out that this involves “raising the hopes of potential candidates”, “recovering those who left” and continuing to take advantage of the quarry that the higher education centres, hotel and catering schools and vocational training centres represent. “The Hotel Management School of Galicia (CSHG) has trained nearly 3,000 managers since it was set up, who are now working in hotel and tourism companies all over the world”, said Cesáreo Pardal.

The president of the Cluster also mentioned the growing importance of new technologies in the sector, not only to help attract talent, but also to improve the relationship with the team and the user experience: “Among other improvements, the application of automation and technologies such as artificial intelligence allow staff to free up the most repetitive tasks and focus on customer service, which is what really adds value”.

After the official opening, two round tables were held, in which leading experts took the floor. The one dedicated to “Technology applied to the hotel sector” brought together Pablo Soto, Innovation Manager at Vodafone Business; Oscar López, commercial manager of Mega Mundo Estrella Galicia; and Celso Gómez, Ecommerce Manager; with Rosana Canda, director of Hotel Talaso Atlántico and vice-president of AEDH Galicia, as moderator. Xavier Aizcorbe, from Turijobs, Javier García, from APeTéCeMe, and Luis Rial, subdirector of the CSHG, took part in the round table on “Human resources in the hotel sector”, moderated by Ramón Braña, general manager of OCA Hotels and president of AEDH Galicia.