European tourism gurus invited to Palma summit

The Balearic Minister for Tourism, Celesti Alomar, has invited a group of alleged international tourism “gurus” to attend a conference on the future of tourism in the Balearics on October 7 and 8. The summit has been organised to provide the group of experts from all over Europe to discuss and reflect on the future of the region's tourist industry. The summit has been organised by the Centre for Tourism Technology and Investigation, based at the ParcBit technology park, and Alomar said yesterday that he hopes to open a far more advanced debate on exactly where the tourism industry is going. The so-called The International Committee of Tourism Experts will spark a debate which Alomar hopes will continue for six months on the internet and in which local tourism experts will participate, leading up to a second summit in Majorca to draw up conclusions, which in turn will by analysed by the local government. Alomar said that some of the conclusions may even become government policy, although the conclusions will be reached just two months before the elections. Director of the tourism investigation centre, Carmel Bonnín, said that only European experts have been invited to this inaugural summit “because they know the Balearics better,” although they will be arriving on the island a few days before the summit “in order to get to know the best and the worst of the island.” On the committee of experts will be Richard Butler from the University of Surrey.