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IN BUSINESS TOURISM SUMMIT MI CASA, SU CASA: “Mexico is a safe place to visit,” says President Felipe Calderón of Mexico, at right, with Peter Greenberg discussing Mexico’s tourism industry during the 2011 Travel and Tourism Summit. Global Tourism Industry Summit Lures True All-Stars To Las Vegas ‘TOURISM OLYMPICS’ ALSO SHOWCASES LOCAL BIGWIGS ON WORLD STAGE By Richard N. Velotta senior staff writer It’s been called “the Olympics of the tourism industry.” For the host city–Las Vegas in this case–it has the potential to be an economic windfall. For the global tourism industry, it’s a significant gathering to hash out the issues of the day. The World Travel and Tourism Council’s 11th annual Global Travel and Tourism Summit opens at CityCenter’s Aria resort this week, bringing the industry’s top executives to a Las Vegas stage. The event opens 16 Tuesday, but most of the activities will be Wednesday and Thursday. The event organized by the London- based council is making only its second appearance in North America. The summit was in Washington in 2006 and in previous years, it has been staged in Brazil, Dubai, Portugal, India, Qatar and China. By Las Vegas standards, the show is small with only about 1,000 attending. But the stature of the participants is off the charts, making it one of the most significant business events ever brought to Southern Nevada. Among the participants in panels and keynote addresses are Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico; Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood; Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; and Ted Turner, chairman of Turner Enterprises. Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, and Steve Ridgway, CEO of Virgin Atlantic Airways, are scheduled to give addresses and top executives of Hertz, Marriott International, Wyndham Worldwide, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Mandarin Oriental, TripAdvisor, Google and Expedia will be on panels. The tourism ministers of several countries also will participate. Two Las Vegas leaders also are scheduled as panelists. Rossi Ralenkotter, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and Stephen Cloobeck, chairman and CEO of Diamond Resorts Holdings and chairman of the recently formed Corporation for Travel Promotion, will be part of the discussions. INTERNATIONAL JET-SETTERS Experts estimate that there will be two billion new consumers who’ll be able to afford international travel in the next decade, most of them in China, India, Brazil and Russia. The Chinese government has considered travel and tourism one of the five key pillars of the Chinese economy, said David Scowsill, president and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council. The US Commerce Department has estimated that travel to the United States would increase by 40 percent from Brazil, 150 percent from China and 110 percent from India in the next nine years. But the failure to have an adequate visa approval process, particularly in Brazil and China, has bottlenecked the process of enabling visitors and business people from coming to the United States. | 23 MAY 2011 | CHRISTOPHER DEVARGAS