Gloria Guevera Manzo
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism appointed Gloria Guevera Manzo, the former CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), as chief special advisor to Ahmed Al Khateeb, the Minister of Tourism.
Guevara Manzo will draw on more than 25 years of public and private tourism sector experience to help facilitate international collaborations, develop human capital and contribute to the delivery of the kingdom’s ambitious, large-scale tourism investments under Vision 2030.
Al Khateeb said: “Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry has incredible potential and is already supporting economic growth and job creation across the kingdom in line with Vision 2030 and the leadership of HM King Salman and HRH the Crown Prince.
“We have a strong national heritage and thousands of unique stories to be told. Gloria brings international expertise and a tremendous global network from her time representing the global tourism and travel sector as the CEO of WTTC and direct experience with evolving a nascent tourism industry from her time as Secretary of Tourism in Mexico, that will help us as our large-scale investment in tourism moves to the next level.”
Manzo said: “I want to be part of the transformation and make the vision of Saudi Arabia as a leading tourism destination a reality. Tourism is the most promising sector in Saudi Arabia; this has been evident since 2019 when the Kingdom first opened for international visitors and became the fastest growing and best performer in Travel and Tourism on a global scale.
“In 2020, the Saudi leadership did an incredible job of managing the Covid-19 crisis and building its domestic tourism while continuing to advocate for global industry alignment and the recovery, and I am confident that my many years of expertise can help accelerate the next phase of development,”
The Ministry of Tourism is spearheading the sector’s development towards the Vision 2030 goals of increasing tourism’s contribution to GDP from 3 percent to more than 10 percent, creating an additional one million jobs for Saudi nationals and increasing visitor numbers to 100 million by 2030.
