The president of the Galicia Tourism Cluster participated in the opening ceremony of the biennial event that this year was held in Ourense and also took part in a round table on tourism competitiveness.

The role of dialogue between the sector and the Administration and the implementation of initiatives such as the Galicia Destino Sostible Product Club were some of the elements that he highlighted during the closing day.

The Galicia Tourism Cluster has had an outstanding participation in the XXII International Congress of the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism (AECIT) held from 6 to 8 October in the city of Ourense. The president of the Cluster, Cesáreo Pardal, in addition to being part of the honorary committee of this biennial event whose headquarters has been passing through cities throughout Spain in previous editions, took part in both the opening ceremony on Thursday 6th and in one of the round tables of the final day.

Cesáreo Pardal shared the responsibility of speaking at the official opening of the congress with the director of Tourism of Galicia, Nava Castro; the president of the Provincial Council of Ourense, Xosé Manuel Baltar; the deputy mayor of Ourense, Armando Ojea; the vice-rector of the Ourense Campus of the University of Vigo, Elena Rivo; the president of the AECIT, Felio José Bauzá; the dean of the Faculty of Business Sciences and Tourism, María Montserrat Cruz; and the president of the organising committee of the congress, José Antonio Fraiz, whom he congratulated for the work carried out and for having turned the city of Ourense into the venue of this congress and, therefore, a meeting point for reflection and debate of leading experts in the field of tourism.

During the three days that this XXII AECIT Congress has lasted, a hundred specialists from academia, science, business and institutions have passed through Ourense to analyse the challenges of tourism in the post-pandemic world and from the point of view of innovation, digitisation, sustainability and competitiveness. This last aspect was, precisely, the focus of the round table held on the final day of this Saturday with the participation of the president of the Galicia Tourism Cluster. Cesáreo Pardal shared time and reflections with the general director of the Oca Hotels group and president in Galicia of the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers, Ramón Braña Cobas, and with the manager of the Ourense Institute of Economic Development (Inorde), Emma González. Lidia Andrades, professor at the University of Extremadura and expert in tourism competitiveness, acted as moderator.

In his speech, Cesáreo Pardal highlighted the role played by the Cluster in tourism development thanks to its direct involvement “both in the Galician Tourism Strategy 2017-2030 and in the Master Plan 2021-2023 Galicia Safe Destination”. He also highlighted the close collaboration with the Galician Tourism Agency and the Xunta de Galicia and the work of dialogue between the sector and the Administration developed by the Cluster when adopting measures to deal with the last covid pandemic: “This joint management of the crisis saved thousands of establishments that otherwise would not have been able to survive. It also allowed us to analyse the ways out. Galicia, in these difficult circumstances, could offer security to visitors, since our offer is an open-air tourism with very little overcrowding. Hence the Safe Destination that we were able to communicate, thanks to initiatives such as the “Let’s stay in Galicia” vouchers, in the creation and development of which the Cluster also participated actively”.

With regard to the challenges and the future of the sector, Cesáreo Pardal advocated tourism based “on respect for local societies, their culture and that favours the development of their economic activities”, as promoted by the Galicia Destino Sostible Product Club launched by the Cluster with the collaboration of the Xunta. He also highlighted the importance of the Turespazo platform in the field of digital transformation, highlighted the potential of Galicia as a benchmark for quality and safety to respond to the demands of the post-covid visitor and defended the importance of training and specialisation of workers in the sector.

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