Spring into Recovery: resilience, recovery and raising excellence in tourism

IGCAT experts and stakeholders in food, culture, wellness, nature and many other sectors from over 30 countries around the world took part in the webinar Spring into Recovery: resilience, recovery and raising excellence in tourism, held on 18-19 May 2021 and hosted by the Slovenian Tourist Board.

Slovenian Tourism Board hosted the event in the framework of Slovenia, European Region of Gastronomy awarded 2021, which explored challenges and opportunities arising from the Covid-19 crisis to build back stronger, better and more sustainable travel, tourism, hospitality and cultural sectors across Europe. By facilitating cross-sectoral dialogue, the webinar invited good practises from awarded, candidate and potential European Regions of Gastronomy on the implementation of programmes for recovery.

Each day started with a general session presenting views from main speakers, followed by smaller key group discussions involving more contributors.

On 18 May, the webinar focused on the theme of Recovery and Resilience and included interventions by MSc. Maja Pak, Director of the Slovenian Tourism Board; Iulia Niculica, Funding, Procurement and Development Manager, European Travel Commission and Secretariat, European Tourism Manifesto; Patrick Torrent, Executive Director of the Catalan Tourist Board and President of NECStouR; Barbara Zmrzlikar, Head of Research, Development, Innovation and EU Projects Department, Slovenian Tourist Board; and Heidi Lazani, Communications Specialist and former Head of the Executive Committee of South Aegean, European Region of Gastronomy awarded 2019.

“Our aim was to provide a space to dream the world we would like to create; exchange ideas across different sectors to find new solutions to our current challenges; learn and deepen our knowledge-sharing possibilities as well as, support one another as leaders in our fields that are taking steps to ensure positive change” commented Dr. Diane Dodd, President of IGCAT and Chair of the webinar.

The rich array of knowledges and experiences exchanged at the Spring into Recovery event shared a common vision on the need to rely on cooperation as a main means to recover from the current crisis. Creating connections between and within destinations, encouraging dialogue across sectors and stakeholders, and supporting creativity and innovation will be the way towards a successful and sustainable post-Covid restart.

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