Moderator
Dr. Dirk Glaesser
Director, Sustainable Development of Tourism, UNWTO
Juan José Álvarez
Secretary of Tourism, State of Guanajuato, Mexico
Gracen Chungath
Senior Vice President, Destination Development, Destination Canada
Mathias Schattleitner
President, Austrian Tourism Managers, Managing Director Schladming-Dachstein, Austria
This Panel discussion has highlighted the importance of effective governance in the sustainable development of destinations and the involvement of all stakeholders in the sector.
It is essential that there is an internal understanding that every single action within the program in the ministry must have an element of sustainability. In Mexico, there are 32 states, with governance at the federal and state levels.
Gracen Chungath, on the other hand, remarked that Canada is a country with three levels of governance, including the indigenous level, and therefore with interactions at various social levels, so there is greater complexity in the system. The pandemic has been a catalyst for sustainability in Canada.
Mathias Schattleitner, commented that tourism management in Austria operates with a clear participatory approach. All stakeholders have to be part of the destination management organization.
Finally, data management and statistics are a very important tool for the flow of policies and sustainability among the different actors, providing them with this information. An example of this is the Observatory launched in Guanajuato.
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