The Tenerife town of adeje will gather a hundred of representatives europeans of hospitality and tourism from 35 countries to reflect at the end of April on the future of the sector in the European Union.
Thus, professionals from hotels, restaurants, bars, cafes and similar establishments in Europe will meet from April 26 to 28 in the south of Tenerife to celebrate the 86th General Assembly of their employers, Hotrec, a business conclave that will be held at the hotel GF Victoria.
Tenerife was the destination chosen last October in Stockholm as the venue for the next European hospitality assembly, which has Ashotel as the host association, as well as the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations (CEHAT) and Hospitality of Spain as co-organizers.
To present the keys to this assembly, this Wednesday the president of Ashotel and CEHAT, Jorge Marichal; the mayor of Adeje, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga and the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín.
During the event, the video messages of the President of Hotrec, Alexandros Vassilikos, and the President of Hospitality of Spain, José Luis Yzuel, were also transferred.
Jorge Marichal recalled that the hospitality activity in Spain “is a fundamental pillar” of the economy and part of the country’s “DNA”, so “it is a great satisfaction” to become a “meeting point for the sector at a European level”.
In addition, he pointed out that “until now, Spain and the Canary Islands have been predominantly tourism receiving destinations, a perfect opportunity to tell Hotrec representatives from mainly emitting countries what they are like as a destination.”
“We are a sector of which we should feel very proud,” said Marichal forcefully, who regretted that in certain areas the tourist activity is insulted.
The president of Ashotel and CEHAT reported that this business meeting comes at a key moment, just when Spain will assume the Presidency of the European Union on July 1, “a unique opportunity to expose the idiosyncrasies of the island territory, in terms of the regime differentiated economic and fiscal (REF)”.
In this regard, he added that the geographical situation of the archipelago makes it highly dependent on air connectivity, “the Achilles heel” of the destination.
“It is important that we are able to make our colleagues understand that the legislation that is being negotiated in Europe can affect the Canary Islands as a top-level tourist destination,” said Marichal, clearly alluding to the current debate on the so-called ‘green rate’ for fuel. of the planes.
In this sense, he recalled that the Canary Islands tourist employers and other business and political organizations have requested to leave the Canary Islands exempt from environmental taxation.
This request is justified not only in the condition of the Canary Islands as an Outermost Region, but also due to the relevance of tourism in its productive fabric, also based on efficient connectivity with its main source markets, European countries, collects a note from Ashotel.
Pedro Martín highlighted the fact that Tenerife once again hosts an international event to debate and reflect on the future of the hospitality industry, and emphasized the work carried out to promote new tourism strategies linked to sustainability and digitization.
Key business of the meeting
The representatives of the European hospitality industry will debate and reflect during the three days on issues related to sectoral regulations and regulations, digitization, training and retention of talent in the sector, accessibility, electronic commerce or housing for tourist use and sustainability , among other matters.
Likewise, Ashotel has programmed for the second day of the assembly a technical conference on tourism sustainability, one of the key axes of the sector, in which different specialized professionals will intervene.
This conference, which will take place at the facilities of the Renewable Energy Technology Institute (ITER), an international reference research center in renewable energy, engineering, telecommunications, environment and genomics dependent on the Cabildo de Tenerife, includes a visit to the bioclimatic homes and it will be a meeting point for the exchange of real experiences that some associated and European companies have launched in terms of sustainability.
The internal work sessions on the first day will take place at the GF Victoria hotel, in Costa Adeje. In addition, Ashotel has designed a whole program of parallel activities that result in getting to know the destination.
