The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) just announced that it will hold its first Regional Summit on 16-18 May in 2012 in Mexico. The Regional Summit will be hosted in Cancun, Quintana Roo by the Mexican Ministry of Tourism.

The WTTC Americas Summit will cover North, Central, South America and the Caribbean. It will be held immediately after the T20 Ministers Meeting, which will be held on 14-15 May 2012 in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

In partnership with the Mexican Secretaría de Turismo (SECTUR), WTTC will invite high-level delegates from the public and private sector to debate a range of global Travel & Tourism issues in the Americas regional context. T20 Ministers, Ministers of Tourism from the region, NTOs, private and public sector companies will participate in the Summit.

David Scowsill, President & CEO of WTTC said: "Mexico is the ideal host for our first regional Summit, which takes place one month before the G20 meeting. Mexico leads the way in recognizing the enormous contribution Travel & Tourism makes to the economy, employment and export income. President Calderón has a strong commitment to tourism which is underlined by the declaration of 2011 as the ‘Year of Tourism’ and by being the first to join WTTC’s and UNWTO’s joint Global Leaders for Tourism Campaign, which highlights the importance of tourism to global growth and development. We are delighted that he will hold the Chair for G20 in 2012."

Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism, Gloria Guevara Manzo, stated, "We are honored that Mexico was selected to host the first WTTC Regional Summit and look forward to create synergies and opportunities through the interaction and discussions among the leaders that will attend the most important forum of an industry that not only significantly contributes to the global GDP but also provides the best opportunity to create jobs and growth."

In August 2011, WTTC implemented a strategy to launch a series of regional events/summits around the globe. The strategy will create new events designed to deliver the objectives outlined in WTTC’s mission and provide significant value to the event’s hosts and partners.

All WTTC’s regional events will concentrate on originality and quality of content, focus on global tourism economics and relate to issues in the region where the Summit is hosted.