(TAN): The European Travel Commission (ETC) has appointed Luís Araújo from Turismo de Portugal as its president for a three-year term. The ETC represents 33 national tourism organisations of Europe.
Araújo was selected by the 99th general meeting to lead ETC’s efforts towards sustainable tourism recovery in Europe. Luís Araújo is a long-standing member of the tourism sector with over 20 years of experience. Heading the Portuguese National Tourism Authority since February 2016, he leads a team of 650 people and 350 external trainers, and coordinates 20 tourism delegations covering 26 foreign markets for Portugal.
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Araújo was previously a board member at Group Pestana (the largest hotel group in Portugal with over 100 hotels in 15 countries) responsible for operations in Latin America while also leading the sustainability department of the group. He also served as head of the cabinet of the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism between 2005 and 2007.
Taking over the mandate during these unprecedented times, Luís Araújo will lead European destinations’ joint efforts to rebuild the tourism sector in Europe in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis. The newly elected president aims to position ETC as the top influential voice in the sector’s transformation towards responsible, sustainable, digital and resilient tourism of tomorrow.
“I am extremely proud to be able to lead the European Travel Commission on behalf of Turismo de Portugal namely in a period when European tourism faces one of its biggest challenges if not the biggest,” said Araújo, adding that “one of the main goals is to ensure that tourism has a stronger voice in Europe and the EU, through better coordination among countries, in view of a quick and sustainable recovery of the tourism sector”.
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Araújo’s work will be supported by ETC’s vice-presidents. Robert Andrzejczyk from the Polish Tourism Organisation, Magda Antonioli from the Italian Government Tourism Board and the newly elected Kristjan Staničić from the Croatian National Tourist Board will be coordinating ETC’s advocacy activities focusing on visa facilitation, connectivity and sustainability.
Luís Araújo takes the presidency over from Peter De Wilde, CEO of VisitFlanders, who held the position for six years and lead ETC through reform, enlarging a portfolio of activities and attracting numerous associate members from the private sector
