In October, eight months will have passed since the global tourism collapse began. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates an 80% drop in visitation this year and already reports an industry contraction of 22% in the first semester and millions of jobs lost. These have been months of anguish, sadness, frustration, uncertainty, and above all of reflection and re-invention. Now is the time to take action. It is time to develop a new plan to reimagine tourism, an industry which was already strategic but that today is fundamental.
Consumers will have a renewed appetite for destinations that do not cater to the masses, but favor contact with nature, and safe spaces for small groups of families and friends. Paradoxically at the same time, there is also a movement focusing on the recovery and reactivation of traditional destinations of mass tourism, on which millions of jobs depend and where large transnational investments are based. These represent large economic interests, and therefore, receive disproportionate attention from government institutions. As in any process of change, balance is usually not found at one extreme or the other, but somewhere in between.
This year, the theme for ATMEX is: “Plan B: Re-imagining Tourism” precisely because we need to find a new balance, a systemic vision that encompasses, not only tourism but also all the other key groups and actors who are intimately related to our activity and our destinations. We need to forge a more resilient and regenerative tourism industry, that is less fragile and more inclusive. At ATMEX 2020 we will address key issues and their specific applications such as entrepreneurship and innovation, smart destinations, the maximization of technological benefits, carrying capacities and sustainability, governance and regulation, financing and promotion – all through the voices of leaders in their fields.
While we cannot expect that there will be a pendulum swing and that all tourism points towards adventure and nature (this would be catastrophic given our installed capacity). We cannot allow ourselves to return to the status quo, pretending that nothing happened after the most serious crisis in modern times.
Throughout the ATMEX 2020 conferences, we will explore the different points of view from industry experts. Each of our speakers will give us recommendations for very specific steps to follow for our companies, our destinations, and the tourist activity as a whole. Our goal this year will be to strengthen ATMEX with more delegates, more knowledge, more precise ideas, new business alliances, and a clearer course. Together we will create a document that embodies this action plan, and we will be in charge of sharing it with the main actors of national tourism.
To start, we propose the following call to action: “25 by 25”, seeking to explore the possibility that 25% of the tourism in Mexico will be adventure and nature by 2025. Is it feasible? What would we need to achieve it? This is part of what we will be discussing at ATMEX 2020. We need you to join us, to be an agent of change, to activate our “Plan B” and to re-imagine tourism together.
