WTTC and WEF Reinforce Partnership to Promote Sustainable Growth in Travel & Tourism

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and the World Economic Forum, today announce a reinforced partnership to promote the importance of the sustainable growth of the global Travel & Tourism sector.

The strategic partnership will see enhanced collaboration between WTTC and the Forum, with the overall aim of advancing the Safe & Seamless Traveller Journey programme, a major priority for WTTC, developing and advancing projects to increase Travel & Tourism competitiveness and sustainability, supporting one another’s work relating to the future of work, and collaboration with regards to crisis and resilience.

Collaboration between the two organisations will take the form of shared information and mutual collaboration, which leverage their respective areas of expertise, to produce forward-looking major reports, mutual support for events and conferences such as the WTTC Global Summit, which will take place in Cancun Mexico in March 2021, and the creation of information sharing channels.

The first major part of the collaboration will see WTTC joining the CommonTrust Network which will provide a crucial mechanism for States and industry to agree on a harmonised, standards-based trust framework for health status verification to restart travel and advance coordinated efforts to support the recovery of Travel & Tourism.

Gloria Guevara, President & CEO, WTTC said: “We are excited to reinforce our partnership with the World Economic Forum in order to broaden and expand the outreach of both organisations.

“We believe that through our leadership and collective expertise, we will be better able to raise awareness on the importance of Travel & Tourism and drive forward strong research and initiatives for its sustainable development.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the global Travel & Tourism sector, and now as we come to the end of 2020, we can finally see recovery on the horizon.”

Christoph Wolff, Head of Mobility at the World Economic Forum said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has only emphasised the need for like-minded organizations to work together, and we are delighted to strengthen our collaboration to support the secure and sustainable development of the aviation, travel and tourism industry.

“The CommonTrust Network is an ambitious but necessary collaboration across and beyond the travel and tourism ecosystem, which will harmonise programmes related to digital COVID-19 test results and health record verification. Members of the network are building a much-needed global registry of trusted laboratory data sources, standard formats for lab results, and standard tools to make those results digitally accessible. This will go a long way to support the safe reopening of international borders and the resumption of economic activity based on travel and tourism.”

WTTC represents the global Travel & Tourism private sector. Members include 200 CEOs, Chairs and Presidents of the world’s leading Travel & Tourism companies from all geographies covering all industries. WTTC is committed to raising the awareness of governments and the public of the economic and social significance of the Travel & Tourism sector.

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial, and not tied to any special interests. The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. Moral and intellectual integrity is at the heart of everything it does.