Palma, Spain, May 22 (EFE).- Agents and experts in the tourism industry affirmed on Wednesday at the CON-X conference that diversification and the promotion of alternative destinations to traditional ones are key paths to achieving sustainability in a sector that attained 1.3 billion international arrivals in 2023.
The roundtable “Exploring the Limits of the Industry,” organized on the Spanish island of Mallorca by TravelgateX, featured Paul Anthony, Head of Digital Commercialization at Hotelbeds, Martin Modarelli, Vice President of B2B and B2B2C at Despegar, and consultant Bas Lemmens.
Both Anthony and Modarelli stated that innovation was essential in a fragmented industry but should not become an obsession, as growth would only be sustainable with the efficiency of new proposals.
Promoting alternative destinations
Among the most repeated ideas at the event, in which EFE is a media partner, was improving the promotion of alternative destinations within the most visited countries to avoid overcrowding at monuments and attractions like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Wall of China, or New York City.
“We cannot handle more people seeing the Mona Lisa. If you go to the Mona Lisa in Paris and there are 8.5 million people a year, you go like boom, boom, boom,” Lemmens said during an interview with EFE in an apparent reference to long lines that must move quickly. He suggested measures such as adjusting school and work calendars to extend vacation periods beyond the summer.
Additionally, he said he believed it was crucial for alternative destinations to improve their storytelling and be attractive to travelers. He shared his personal experience, noting that his 15-year-old daughter uses platforms like TikTok to discover places she had never heard of.
“All the big events are mostly organized in big cities, and that’s completely nonsense. Why should they be held in Las Vegas, New York, or Miami? Why not somewhere else” as another way to advance tourism diversification, he concluded. EFE
