Gloria Guevara | President and CEO, World Travel & Tourism Council: Global tourism body chief stresses importance of long-term planning

The influential World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) held its invitation-only “Asia Leaders Forum” on Monday in Macau. Interviewed by the Times, the president and CEO of the international organization that represents the travel industry talked about the pitfalls of overtourism and the way technology has changed the industry.

On her first visit to Macau, Gloria Guevara told us that she was impressed by the city, where the newest part of it reminds her of Las Vegas, contrasting with the historical background visitors can find downtown.

After working for the travel industry since 1995, Guevara was appointed as Secretary of Tourism of Mexico between 2010 and 2012. She joined the WTTC in August 2017.

Macau Daily Times (MDT) – The tourism industry has been growing worldwide and particularly in Asia. How can tourism grow at such a rate and, at the same time, be sustainable?

Gloria Guevara (GG) – One of the differences that I see between what is going on here and in other parts of the world is that in China, I see that there’s a long-term plan. You can invest in infrastructure and make important changes, have a good foundation and plan accordingly. That will help you have the growth. Regarding Macau, it was a surprise for me to learn from Helena [Senna Fernandes, the head of the Macao Government Tourism Office] about the plan they put together a couple of years ago. I thought they had it a long time ago, because they have done quite well. That’s a good differentiation from some other countries that plan short-term and keep changing as governments change. I think this is an advantage for this part of the world. At the same time, the opportunity is huge. Asia is the part of the world that has been growing the most. It is a region that is booming and it is very impressive. 

MDT – Macau is a small place which receives a large influx of tourists. Many people say that ‘overtourism’ is happening here. What are the main impacts of ‘overtourism’ and how can the government manage it?

GG – I’m assuming, now that the bridge is open, that they planned it accordingly. What you don’t want to see is overtourism in this part of China. Every country and every city is unique and there is not one solution that fits all. But the best practices that I’ve seen are, for example, when they break the seasonality. This means that you are open for 365 days and there are no ups and downs, the tourism influx is very well distributed. This is a commercial strategy that can be defined by the national tourism office with the private sector, so that they can maximize the growth [over] the entire year. It is very important that they have that plan. The other thing is product diversification, which Macau is already working on.

MDT – Would you say that ‘overtourism’ is one of the main challenges that the travel industry faces right now? We can see places like Venice or Barcelona, where the locals complain about the large influx of visitors.

GG – Not everywhere. A couple of mature markets are facing overtourism. But there are cities, like Dubrovnik, that had overtourism and they fixed it now. In the case of Dubrovnik, overtourism happened because basically all the ships [cruises] were arriving on Thursday at 5 p.m. and now you have one ship every day. It has been spread out throughout the week and they don’t have that problem anymore. There are some cities that are still facing challenges with the volumes. But when you want to avoid or overcome overtourism, you need to have PPC – planning; partnership between the public and the private sector and community (the benefits have to be seen by the communities also). And this [PPC] has to be long-term in order to avoid overcrowding.

MDT – You have a computer science background. How has technology changed the tourism sector over the past years?

GG – The travel industry is very sophisticated in the use of technology. Sometimes people don’t realize that because they don’t understand what is behind it. For instance, Jane [Sun, the CEO of Ctrip.com, who spoke at the Asia Leaders Forum] was mentioning today, when you look at the transactions that they [Ctrip.com] do per second… we are talking about millions of transactions per second. It’s very sophisticated in terms of [the] technology industry. Our industry has space for anything and every single innovation has an impact. At the beginning, it might be a disruptor, but in a positive way. Self-driving cars for sure are going to impact our industry. They talk about Virtual Reality [VR] and Augmented Reality [AR]… for sure those are going to impact our industry. VR will promote more traveling and AR will benefit the experience. Then they talk about 3D printing… same thing.

MDT – How does the WTTC see the emergence of home sharing companies such as Airbnb? Does it have an impact on the hotel business?

GG – It is another technology. Airbnb is one of our members, same thing with Uber. We represent them all. Airbnb was a disruptor, it came with a new platform to cover a very specific need for cities that were hosting events and didn’t have enough [hotel] capacity. It is another source of revenue, but then we see different reactions. Markets are regulating, so that they have a fair playing field, some others are restricting that, some are very open. Every market makes their own decisions, but you cannot go against progress. You need to embrace it and see how you make it workable, good, and win-win for everyone.   

MDT – One other trend you mentioned several times during the Asia Leaders Forum is seamless traveling. Here you still have hard borders and many people need visas to travel to China.

GG – It is very important for Macau, Hong Kong and China to work with the private sector – both local and global – to implement the right technology. At the end of the day, what is important is the minimum piece of data that is going to be transferred in exchange for a better experience for the traveler and in a secure environment.

MDT – After this WTTC event in Macau, do you expect to organize more events here?

GG – We don’t know, at this point it is too early to tell. This was the first Leaders Forum in China. We are going to have another one next year. Most likely it will rotate, but that doesn’t mean that we might do something with GTEF [Global Tourism Economy Forum, which concludes today in Macau]. Pansy Ho is part of the WTTC executive council and a very active member. This is an important market, of course, for her. For us also, as China is a strategic market.