Madrid, XX May 2021. FiturNext Observatory, FITUR’s platform dedicated to promoting good sustainability practices in tourism, sponsored by Mastercard, has published the complete programme for its current edition, which is dedicated to gender equality and female empowerment. The conference will include the presentation of awards to the winning initiatives for the 2021 challenge and a series of discussions and dialogues to highlight female talent and the pursuit of equality within the sector.
Presentation of awards and talks with the edition’s leading women
The programme will be launched by Santiago Quiroga, Director of Quality and Corporate Social Responsibility at IFEMA MADRID. Next, Francisco Rodríguez, a consultant specialising in tourism at Ideas for Change, will present the FiturNext 2021 report, an analysis that includes formulas that can be replicated to achieve gender equality within the industry. Then, awards will be presented to the winning initiatives of the 2021 challenge and the associated projects will be presented.
The award-winning NGO Afrikable will present the positive results of its “Solidarity Holidays[PL1] ” programme, which offers work opportunities in the tourism sector to at-risk women in Kenya. Then, the other two winning proposals from Fundación Codespa and Women in Travel CIC, will share their key vision in terms of equality within community-managed rural tourism[PL2] and in training within the sector, respectively.
The ceremony will also include honourable mention of the remaining finalist projects submitted for the challenge: Open Eyes Project, Active Woman, RaizUp, Women in eTravel, Equality in Tourism, Fundación Santander (Best Africa), Fundación EnVía, Fundación Barcelona and ASEET.
Dialogues promoting female leadership
Amongst all of the activities scheduled for the event, of particular note is the significant number of dialogues and discussions with female experts in the tourism sector committed to female empowerment.
Begoña Gómez, Director of the special lecture series on Competitive Social Transformation at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Paloma Real, Director of Mastercard Spain, will participate in a roundtable discussion as part of the “Mastercard Space” focussing on women, tourism and competitive social transformation.
The schedule also features a discussion on tourism from a female perspective by Cristina Figueroa, professor at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and author of Mujer y alta dirección en el sector turístico [Women and senior leadership in the tourism sector], and Daniela Moreno Alarcón, a researcher specialising in gender, tourism and sustainability. Susana Fernández, President of the Asociación de Ejecutivas de Empresas Turísticas (ASEET, Association of Female Executives in Tourism Companies) will also discuss their vision alongside other sector leaders.
Lastly, FiturNext will conclude this year’s edition with a public discussion to define which challenge that has a positive impact on the industry will be most interesting for the 2022 edition of the Observatory.
