Hon. John Amaratunga is a veteran politician and lawyer in Sri Lanka. He first entered parliament in 1978 and has had an unbroken run in the supreme legislature since then. From the inception of his political career, he has served as a Representative of the Gampaha District in Parliament for the United National Party.

In a political career spanning nearly four decades, Hon. John Amaratunga has served under various leaders holding important ministerial portfolios in the Government of Sri Lanka.

In 1988 he was appointed as State Minister of Finance. In 1989 he was appointed State Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1993 he was elevated to Cabinet rank as Minister of Home Affairs and Provincial Councils. Hon. John Amaratunga served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprise (COPE) from 1984 to 1993 and from 1994 to 2001.

With the change of government in 2001 he was appointed Cabinet Minister of Interior and Christian Affairs. From 2010 to 2015 he served as the Chief Opposition Whip in Parliament. In January 2015 he was appointed as Cabinet Minister of Public Order, Disaster Management and Christian Religious Affairs. Following the General Election in August 2015 and the formation of the Unity Government, Hon. John Amaratunga took up his current portfolio of Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs.

A few months later he was given the additional portfolio of Lands.

Hon. John Amaratunga is also a long serving Working Committee Member of the UNP. He has served as Chairman – UNP Gampaha District Coordination Committee, Secretary General – National Trade Union Federation, and President – Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya which is the main trade union arm of the UNP.

During his long political career he has led several official delegations abroad.

He is one of the few politicians with an unblemished record who has served his constituents and the country with dedication and distinction.

Minister Amaratunga’s current portfolio of Tourism Development is of much importance as the country is now looking to the industry to be the catalyst of growth and the leading foreign exchange earner.

Hon. Amaratunga has wasted no time in getting the wheels in motion to develop tourism to its full potential with a hands-on approach where he personally visits places of tourist interest to look into issues and formulate development plans. Unlike his predecessors, Hon. Amaratunga has also enlisted the services of the captains of the tourism industry to advise him on the way forward through the formation of a high profile Tourism Advisory Committee.

Hon. John Amaratunga is a product of De Mazenod College, Kandana, St. Joseph’s College, Colombo, Aquinas University College, Colombo and Ceylon Law College, Colombo.

By profession he is an Attorney at Law, Notary Public, Justice of Peace and Unofficial Magistrate.

The name Wanda Tulfo-Teo has become synonymous with Mindanao tourism, following her groundbreaking efforts in positioning Davao City as a major tourist destination.

As Tourism Secretary, she is renowned for her vision of a “shared tourism,” a participative and inclusive industry movement that benefits the widest spectrum of society.

Her 10-month-old-administration has already weathered all the ups and downs of the industry, from bagging some of the most important deals to date on tourism cooperation with China, Thailand, France, Germany, Israel, Viet Nam, Turkey, Russia, and Singapore, as well as dispelling the international community’s fears and negative perceptions of the traveling to the Philippines.

Upon assumption to office, she immediately convened the country’s tourism council, which eventually paved the way for the Department of Tourism (DOT) to outline its thrusts and programs through the National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP).

Under her helm, the NTDP was approved by industry members at a record pace. Among her landmark works within the first six months include the scrapping of the unnecessary fees in travel tax exemption processing after so many years in the doldrums and the rehabilitation of Intramuros as a historical gem and premiere tourist destination.

With her illustrious professional career that traces more than two decades and the same old vigor of a travel agent, and the trust and confidence of the stakeholders, she is confident in steering the country’s sunshine industry towards its goals.

Dr Pali Lehohla is the Statistician General of South Africa, a position he held since November of 2000. He is the Chair of Africa Symposium for Statistical Development (ASSD), a country led initiative established in 2006 and the aim of which is to put statistical evidence at the centre of policy in Africa. From 2005 to 2010 he served in a variety of portfolios. He was Chair of the United Nations Statistics Commission, Chair of Statistics Commission Africa and also Chair of PARIS21 a global partnership for statistical development in the 21st Century. He is also the Chair for the Sub-Group on Harmonization of Statistics in Africa.

He has served as an advisor to in-conflict, post-conflict and fragile political environments. In this regard he was Chief Advisor to the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MOC) of the 2008 Population and Housing Census of Sudan which was part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005.

He served as a UN envoy to the Census of Cambodia in 1998. He undertook a Population Census readiness mission in Afghanistan in 2008 and another in Iraq in 2009. He is Vice President of the International Statistics Institute (ISI) and led the hosting of the 57th Session of the ISI held in Durban South Africa in 2009.

Under his leadership he has established partnerships with universities in South Africa in advancing tuition of statistical training, research and applications in state planning. Of note is the establishment of the Centre for Regional and Urban Innovation and Statistical Exploration (CRUISE) at the University of Stellenbosch. Under the auspices of the Africa Census Analysis Project (ACAP), he initiated a series of publications on the Demography of South Africa as primary tuition material for higher learning and advancing pan-African scholarship. The first book towards achieving this objective on the South African series was published in 2005.

He obtained his degree from the National University of Lesotho (NUL) with double major in Statistics and Economics, undertook post-graduate studies in demography from the United Nations Regional Institute for Population Studies (UNRIPS) at the University of Ghana and Senior Executive Programme jointly awarded by Wits and Harvard Universities. In December 2015, his alma mater, the University of Ghana recognised his contribution in statistics and honoured him and the University of Stellenbosch conferred on Pali Lehohla an Honorary Doctorate for his extensive contribution in global affairs.

Anne Lafortune is the Seychelles Principal Secretary for Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine. She was born on the 8th April 1961 in Sabah Borneo, Malaysia. She lives on the main island of Mahe and has two children, a son and a daughter.

Anne Lafortune started her career in education. She was formally the Director of the Seychelles Polytechnic and later took the position of Director General for Technical and Further Education of the Ministry of Education. She became the Principal Secretary for Health and Social Development in 2007.

She has also occupied the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Seychelles Institute of Management and the Chief Executive Officer of the Public Officers’ Ethics Commission.

In 2013 she was appointed as the Principal Secretary for Tourism in the then Ministry of Tourism and Culture, a position that she maintains until today. She has participated in a number of tourism related meetings and workshops both regionally and internationally. She was the chair of the first Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Tourism and Travel Meeting that was held in Seychelles in 2014. She is also a member of the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA Board) and the Vanilla Islands Tourism Association consisting of islands in the Indian Ocean.

Mrs. Lafortune also sits on a number of government boards including Seychelles Investment Board, Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority and the Seychelles Licensing Authority. She also chairs the Review Panel of the Agency of Social Protection.

Anne Lafortune did her studies at the University of Edith Cowan in Australia and Bristol University in the UK.

I Gde Pitana is Deputy Minister for international marketing, Ministry of Tourism, Republic of Indonesia.

He previously served as Director of Bali Tourism Authority (2001-2004), Director of RnD, Ministry of Culture and Tourism (2005-2008), Director of International Tourism Promotion, Ministry of Culture and Tourism (2008-2010), and Acting Director General for History and Heritage (2010-2011), and Deputy Minister for Resource Development, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (2010-2014).

I Gde Pitana is a Professor in Tourism, Postgraduate/doctorate Study Program, University of Udayana, Denpasar, Bali. He earned his PhD from Australian National University, Canberra (Australia, 1997), while his master (MSc) was gained from Ateneo de Manila University, the Philippines (1989). He has published a number of articles and books, nationally and internationally.

Dr Mario Hardy was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) on November 1, 2014.

PATA is a not-for profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism within the Asia Pacific region. The Association, which celebrated its 65th anniversary in 2016, provides travel industry leadership and counsel to over 98 government, state and city tourism bodies and many hundreds of travel industry companies across Asia Pacific and beyond. He is past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PATA Foundation, a non-profit organisation with a focus on the protection of the environment, the conservation of culture and heritage, and support for education.

Mario is also the founder of Venture Capital firm MAP2 | Ventures. An investment fund with a wide portfolio of technology centric businesses in the field of FinTech, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things and Online Travel Tech. In addition to seed capital, the firm provide’s valuable management advice, mentorship and access to a vast network built over a lifetime experience in corporate development.

Mario previously worked a total of 26 years in specialised aviation businesses with a focus on data analytics and technology and occupied several leadership roles in Montreal, Vancouver, London, Beijing and Singapore.

In 2017, Mario graduated from the Singularity University, Executive Program on the subject of Exponential Technologies. In 2016, he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Capilano University for his philanthropic work in Cambodia where he helped develop a school for underprivileged children and for his support in the development of a Community Based Tourism (CBT) project in Vietnam.

He is a true global citizen who lived on 3 continents, 7 countries and has over 14 years experience working in Asia. A seasoned traveler with a goal of visiting over 100 countries engaging with local communities. Passionate about travel, innovation, design and technology; you will often find him reading, FastCompany, TechCrunch, Mashable, National Geographic, watching TED Talks, or searching for the latest innovations on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

Mr. Hwang Seong Un is the Director General for International Tourism Policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) of the Republic of Korea effective 2 February 2017.

Mr. Hwang holds a Master’s degree in Community Arts Management from the University of Illinois at Springfield, USA and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Law from the Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea. In addition, Mr. Hwang was a research fellow at the University of New South Wales, Sydney in Australia.

Mr. Hwang began his career in 1993 as a government official after passing the high-ranking public official examination and held the position of the Deputy Director in Legal Affairs Office, Tourism Facilities Division, Publication and Newspaper Division. Following this, he became the Director in Performing Arts Division and served as a Secretary to the Minister. From 2009 to 2010, Mr. Hwang served as the Director of International Tourism Division.

Mr. Hwang held an overseas appointment as the Director of the Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines from 2010 to 2014. Following this, he served as Director General for Policy Planning, MCST; a position he held from 2014 until 2015. And most recently, he was appointed to the position of the Deputy Secretary to the President for Tourism from 2015 until 2017.

Dai Bin is President of China Tourism Academy and Director of National tourism data center, a specialized institute directly under CNTA. He got PhD of Economics from China Academy of Social Science, now he is also serving as editorial board member of China Tourist Hotels, Tourism Tribune and Tourism Management, and as expert of Tourism Emergency Affairs Office of the State Council. He won the Beijing Outstanding Teacher Award and National Outstanding Teacher Award respectively in 2006 and 2007. In 2013, he was awarded as National officers’ education and training lecturer, by the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC.

Focusing on studies of tourism economy and tourism management, he has published over 400 thesis, 60 monographs and translations, and initiated more than 70 research projects funded by government and tourism groups, such as China Tourism Observatory. And he delivered over 600 keynote speeches related to tourism at home and abroad. His research team used to win the UNWTO Ulysses Award in 2011 and 2015.

Sérgio Guerreiro holds a degree in Economics and an MSc in Public Management and Administration from Univ. of Lisbon. He is currently a PhD candidate and researcher at University of Lisbon’s CEG-UL-TERRITUR and a visiting lecturer at Universidade Europeia (Lisbon).
He has over 20 years of experience in the field of tourism, working as a policy analyst and Director at Turismo de Portugal, in charge of tourism policy, statistics, business intelligence and innovation, representing Portugal at UNWTO, OECD and European Travel Commission. He is currently Chairman of the European Travel Commission’s Market Intelligence Group and Vice-Chair of the OECD Tourism Committee.

Work experience:
Jan. 2017- Deputy Director General for Tourism Knowledge and Studies
2015-2016 Deputy Head for Strategy and Support to Tourism Industry
2010 -2015 Counselor of Tourism for the Embassy of Spain in Japan, Korea & Taiwan
2008-2010 Deputy Director General for Cooperation and Tourism Competitiveness
2007-2008 Deputy Secretary General of the Instituto de Turismo de España
2002-2007 Counselor of Tourism for the Embassy of Spain in USA, Colombia & Venezuela based in Miami, Florida
1997-2002 Counselor of Tourism for the Embassy of Spain in USA based in Chicago, Illinois
1995-1997 Head of tourist information in Instituto de Turismo de España (Spain Tourism Board)

Education and Training
2010 Master in Communications at INAP
1993 Member of the Public Administration Body (Cuerpo Superior de Administradores Civiles del Estado)
1989 Master in Law at Autónoma University in Madrid

With a University degree in Tourism and Hotelery and also a Master degree on Advertising and Strategic Marketing by De la Salle Bajío University, she has been dedicated to tourism for more than 10 years, on the state of Guanajuato.

She worked on the hotelery of Guanajuato and after that she coordinated the Hotels Asotiation of Leon city. Later, she coordinated the Works to the development and consolidation of the Touristic Observatory of Guanajuato and its inclusion in the UNWTO.

Also, she worked in the creation of the Model of Sustainability Touristic of Guanajuato and now is the Information and Analysis Director of the Ministry of Tourism of Guanajuato.

Her work with the tourism sector in Guanajuato and her participation with public and private organisms in Mexico have allowed her to pushing and getting better the information and the development to new projects that make the tourism, always, the best option to the development of the country.

More than 25-years experience in the field of statistics including National Accounts, Tourism Statistics, Economic Surveys, Population and Establishment Census as other fields of statistics.

Participating in several task forces like the technical subgroup of classification within the United Nations, coordinating the task force for direct investment surveys within IMF as other task forces.

Head of the task force for classification in Oman.

Current duty is to ensure, develop and monitor all type of economic statistics in the National Centre for Statistics and Information.

Faisal Al Saleemi has over 15 years in the tourism sector, and especially in tourism statistics, tourism satellite accounts (TSA), tourism market research, and tourism industry research. He is currently working as the manager of Information Department in Tourism Information & Research Center (MAS Center)- Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. In addition, he has a great experience in managing the tourism surveys (Inbound, Domestic, and Outbound) as well as the tourism establishment surveys. Also, Faisal provides consulting services to tourism organizations in the GCC region on tourism statistics capacity development. Recently, he co-authored a paper entitled ” Measuring Multi-Destination Visits – A case study of Saudi Arabia” which has been presented at the 2nd International Seminar on Regional Tourism- Venice in 2014. Since 2010, he represents Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage in the international and regional meetings on tourism statistics and TSA. More recently, Faisal becomes a member in the UNWTO Working Group on Measuring Sustainable Tourism as representative of Saudi Arabia.

Graduated in Statistics with a bachelor’s degree from the Universidad de Costa Rica (1996). At the present moment, in charge of the Information Management Unit, at the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT); This Unit is responsible for collecting, processing and disseminating geo statistical information for decision-making in the sector. Previously worked in the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INEC). Also worked as a researcher and consultant in the Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas, Universidad de Costa Rica and in the private sector.

College professor for more than 10 years in the Instituto Técnico de Administración de Negocios, Universidad Latina and Universidad Hispanoamericana.

Currently, National Tourism Authority in charge of keeping tourism information updated for the Secretaría de Integración Turística de Centroamerica (SITCA) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Candido J. Astrologo, Jr.
Graduated Masters of Statistics, Katholieke Universetiet Leuven
Currently Assistant National Statistician for Standards Service of the Philippine Statistics Authority

Dr. Lisa Grace S. Bersales, head of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), is the National Statistician and Civil Registrar General of the Philippines. She brings to the position more than 30 years of experience as a researcher and professor in the academe as well as a statistics development partner of the public and private sectors. Among her notable works include restructuring the country’s national statistical system, redefining roles in response to new challenges, and the development of statistical standards, methodologies for sectoral statistics. Before holding her present position, she was appointed as the Vice President for Planning and Finance of the University of the Philippines (UP) System. It was the same university where she served as Dean and Director for Graduate Studies for the School of Statistics. She also took her Bachelor’s degree in Statistics from the same university and graduated Cum Laude, obtained her masteral and doctoral degree.

She has been involved in a number of international engagements related to statistics and data. She was co-chair of the UN Interagency Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal (IAEG-SDG) Indicators in 2015-2017; vice-chair of the Regional Steering Group for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (RSG-CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific; and chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) Board in 2016-2017.

Economist graduated from the Universidad National Mayor de San Marcos de Lima, Peru, member of the Peruvian Economist College, with postgraduate studies in Economic Development at the National University of San Marcos, and a Master’s degree in Economics at the University San Martin de Porres. With studies and internships in national accounts at the Institute des Etudes Economiques (INSEE) in Paris-France, at the Banque de France, at the Ministry of Economy and Finance of France and at the French Ministry of Industry. As well as in the Central Bank of Venezuela, and in the Statistical Institute of Madrid Spain.

National Director of National Accounts of INEI-Peru, in two periods: between 1978-1983 and between 1998-2003.

Member of the Group of experts in Social Accounting in Latin America of ECLAC.

With extensive experience in Peru and in other countries, in the field of national accounts; Environmental economic accounts; Tourism accounts; Ecosystem accounts, economic, social and environmental indicators.

Expert and consultant of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank (WB) For Development (UNFPA), the European Community, and the Andean Community.

Current General Manager of Macro Estudios Consultores Asociados SAC, specialized in macroeconomic studies and research.

Mr. Zachary Mwangi Chege has over 25 years’ experience in the public service. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (First class Honors) from University of Nairobi and a Masters of Arts in Economic Policy Management, Makerere University, Uganda. He has expertise in official statistics, strategic management, surveys and censuses implementation, public policy analysis, budgeting, and project management, among others.

Prior to his current appointment as the Director General of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), he was the Director of Macroeconomic Statistics, KNBS, from 2008 to 2012. From 1991 to 2008 he worked in the mainstream civil service rising to the position of Chief Economist in the then Ministry of Planning and National Development.

He has coordinated the preparation of various publications including, Annual Economic Survey reports, Annual Statistical Abstract reports, Quarterly GDP reports, Socio Economic Atlas, various survey reports, Public Expenditure Review reports, Quarterly Budget Review reports and District Development Plans.

He has attended various courses and workshops, both locally and abroad, on Regional Integration, Statistical Developments, Public Expenditure Management, Financial Programming and Policies, Risk Management, Quality Management System, Project Management, Macroeconomic analysis and modeling, among others.

Mr Igor Chernyshev is a former Head, Yearly Indicators, Decent Work Data Production Unit, of the ILO Department of Statistics. He was in charge of the developmental work on statistical measures of decent work and quality of employment within the context of the Department’s work programme. His major areas of expertise also include measurement of employment in the tourism industries, preparation and implementation of the Labour Force Surveys, international comparison of employment and unemployment estimates, recommendations on the reconciliation of data from different sources, measuring sustainable development with SDGs decent work indicators.

Mr Chernyshev largely contributed to the preparation and was responsible for the implementation of the statistics initiatives launched within the context of the ILO/UNWTO Joint Project on Employment in the Tourism Industries. As a member of the United Nations Expert Group on Tourism Statistics, he was in charge of the preparation of Chapter 7: Employment in the Tourism Industries included for the first time in the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008 (IRTS 2008) and wrote Chapter 7 of the IRTS 2008 Compilation Guide. Also, he initiated, conceived and guided the preparation of the joint ILO/UNWTO Publication Sources and Methods in Labour Statistics – Employment in the Tourism Industries (Special Edition) and is the author of the joint UNWTO/ILO publication Measuring Employment in the Tourism Industries: Guide with Best Practices.

Mr Chernyshev participated in and contributed to the work of the 14th – 19th International Conferences of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) and was Assistant Secretary-General of the 18th ICLS (24 November- 5 December 2008). He participated in the First Meeting of the Working Group of Experts on the Measurement of Sustainable Tourism (UNWTO, Madrid 20-21 October 2016).

Prior to joining the ILO in November 1986, Mr Chernyshev worked for many years at the Central Bureau of Statistics of Ukraine as a Deputy Head, Statistical Information Department

At present, Mr Chernyshev is Vice-President, Green Jobs and Sustainable International Centre. He is the author and co-author of 11 manuals and technical guides, as well as over 50 articles and conference papers.

Christophe Demunter has twenty years experience in official statistics. After seven years in labour market statistics and national accounts in his home country Belgium, Christophe joined the European Commission’s Luxembourg based statistical office Eurostat in 2004 to further develop ICT usage statistics in the EU. Since 2006 he is in charge of tourism statistics but also has one leg in Eurostat’s task force on big data, trying to move the focus from collecting data to connecting data. Christophe holds master degrees in applied economics, criminology and European law.

My professional work career started with Fiji Bureau of Statistics in September 2009 as a project officer. At present I am the Senior Statistician managing the National Accounts and Sector Satellite accounts units where key outputs are Gross Domestic Product, Government Statistics, Tourism Satellite Accounts and Environment Statistics. Environment statistics are fairly new to the unit as the first set of preliminary outputs would be released soon.

I have graduated with Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Official Statistics from the University of the South Pacific. Currently pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Economics from the same institution.

Born in Bolivia in 1960 of Uruguayan and Spanish nationality, he graduated in Economics and Statistics, obtaining his Master in Economics and Econometrics in UDELAR (Uruguay) and post-graduate studies in Statistics and Econometrics (CIENES, Chile) After having worked for many years in the National Statistical Office in Uruguay as technical advisor and head of the Household Surveys Division, in 1986 he joined the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) as Regional Advisor in Labour Markets, then been appointed Special Advisor to the Executive Secretary, Technical Coordinator and Director of the ECLAC’s Montevideo office, working intensively at the regional level in technical assistance to all National Statistical offices, especially focused on household surveys, income and expenditures surveys, living standards surveys and poverty assessments.

He participated actively in the harmonization of labour and poverty statistics jointly working with the World Bank and the Inter-American Bank in the MECOVI project, as well as in the Household Surveys Capability Programme of the UN Statistical Department. He has worked as consultant to the World Bank, the IADB, FAO, UNDP, UNIDO, GTZ, IOM, ILO, EC, UNFPA, ALADI, etc.

He has taught Statistics, Sampling Techniques and Econometrics at many universities in Latin America and the Caribbean, having authored several books and publications in statistical methods and applied time series. He worked extensively in qualitative models and in labour econometrics.

In 2003, he joined the ILO as Senior Economist in the Policy Integration Department in Geneva. In 2007 he was appointed Senior Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Office of the Director General and in 2009 he was appointed as Chief Statistician and Director of a newly created ILO Department of Statistics, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ms. Ebarvia has 30 years of experience in various aspects of environment, economics and sustainable development. She has worked in projects on macroeconomic modeling, environmental and natural resource accounting, valuation of ecosystem services and environmental damages, integrated coastal management, habitat and resource protection, market-based instruments, and environmental investments (e.g., solid waste and wastewater management), that require collaboration among policy, planning, infrastructure, environment and socioeconomic sectors within and between countries.

Ms. Ebarvia has worked at the Asian Development Bank as Sanitation and Wastewater Management Specialist. Prior to this, she was a Technical Officer with the UN International Maritime Organization for the Regional Programme on Building Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia, where she managed projects on public-private partnerships for environmental investments and integrated coastal management, and carried out research and capacity development activities. Ms. Ebarvia was also a lecturer at the University of the Philippines, School of Economics, and was involved in various macroeconometric and environmental projects of NEDA, DENR, UNDP, USAID, and the World Bank.

She is currently working with PEMSEA as Project Manager for the development of the State of Oceans and Coasts reports of countries in the East Asian Seas region.

Dr. Nagore Espinosa has more than 12 years experience in the tourism economic sector in Europe (Spain, Italy, France), America (USA, Colombia) and Asia (Indonesia, Myanmar, East Timor). Currently she coordinates and contributes as an expert to the International Network on Regional Economics Mobility and Tourism – INRouTe, leads the research and consultancy firm in2destination and teaches at the University of Deusto, Spain. She started her professional development within the hotel and events industries shifting to the public sector at the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda of Spain in New York City as Trade Department Director to finally moving into the academic and consulting world. Her focus is on measuring and analyzing tourism so that destinations become more smart, sustainable and inclusive.

Doctor in Business Competitiveness and Economic Development from the Basque Competitiveness Institute and the University of Deusto (Spain). She holds a Master of Science degree on Leisure Events and Facilities Management from Sheffield Hallam University (UK), an Event Management specialization and ERASMUS program semester at the Université d’Angers (France) and a Tourism Bachelor Degree from the University of Deusto (Spain). Her work has been published by UNWTO, INRouTe, academic publications and contributions to international conferences.

Brazilian, graduated in Economics (Federal University of Minas Gerais). Master’s in Development Studies (Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands). Has extensive experience in the public sector in Brazil, especially in development and project finance, investment promotion, public funds policies and management. Served for seven years as Vice-Minister of Tourism (2003/2007) and Institutional Relations of the Presidency (2007/2009). From January 2010 to December 2013, he held the office of Executive Director for Competitiveness, External Relations and Partnerships at UNWTO. Since January 2014 he is the Executive Director for Operational Programmes and Institutional Relations.

Raúl Figueroa studied economics and applied mathematics at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).

He has been a collaborating partner for UN Environment contributing to the “Global Environmental Outlook” (GEO) reports for Mexico, Honduras, Latin America and Mercosur.

Raúl is the focal point and represents the National Geographical and Statistical Institute of Mexico (INEGI) at:

• London Group for Environmental Accounting of the United Nations.
• Ulaanbaatar City Group of the United Nations.
• UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UNCEEA).
• Group of Experts for the Measurement of Sustainable Tourism of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
• United Nations / OECD Green Economy / Green Growth Group in Paris.

Recently he has been collaborating in papers such as:

• Implementing the SEEA: the experience of Mexico, published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
• Environmental accounting and derived indicators of Mexico, published by the International Statistics Institute (ISI).
• Satellite accounts, a functional approach from national accounts: The experience of Mexico, published in the Spanish Statistical Magazine, from the National Statistics Institute of Spain (INE).
• Considerations for measuring green jobs, published by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

He currently heads the Satellite Accounts for Mexico at INEGI, coordinating the programme of environmental accounting, the experimental ecosystem accounts, and the following satellite accounts: culture, unpaid work of households, tourism, housing and the non-profit institutions satellite account. Raúl is also the Secretary of the Tourism Economic Statistics Specialized Technical Committee since its establishment in 2009.

He is a professor and researcher in economic and environment for more than 25 years.

Inmaculada Gallego Galán has a PhD in Tourism Planning and Management from the University of Malaga. She is currently the Head of the Statistics and Market Research Area for the regional Government of Andalucía (Spain) and an associate professor for the Department of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Malaga. In addition, she has extensive experience in different areas of tourism research (e.g., economic analysis, market research, tourism management analysis, etc.) but his research focuses on the creation and development of indicators systems for the management of tourist destinations.

Mélanie Gauche is project manager in the statistical directorate of the Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition. She is in charge of statistical information on the environmental impact of tourism industry and household consumption and lifestyle. On these topics, she ensures the production and the outspread of statistical information at national or subnational level, within the framework of the public availability of environmental information provided by the Aarhus Convention. In her previous assignments, she led the coordination of the national and subnational indicators for the national sustainable development strategy 2010-2013 in cooperation with the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) and the ‘Observatoire des Territoires’ (annual reporting, outreach, methodological issues).

In the environmental field, the statistical directorate of the Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition provides the scientific understanding of the mechanisms on environmental matters by defining the relevant and usable data to be collected, specifying the statistical processing to be performed on these data and analyzing the results obtained. In this purpose, it publishes every four years a report on the state of the environment in France.

Dirk Glaesser is Director for Sustainable Development of Tourism Department at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The department deals with the different challenges and opportunities of tourism development, among them environment and planning, investment and finance, risk and crisis management.

Dr. Glaesser obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Lüneburg, Germany and won the ITB scientific award for his work on Crisis Management. He is the author of a number of publications which have been widely translated.

Dr. Glaesser is married and has two children.

Sérgio Guerreiro holds a degree in Economics and an MSc in Public Management and Administration from Univ. of Lisbon. He is currently a PhD candidate and researcher at University of Lisbon’s CEG-UL-TERRITUR and a visiting lecturer at Universidade Europeia (Lisbon).
He has over 20 years of experience in the field of tourism, working as a policy analyst and Director at Turismo de Portugal, in charge of tourism policy, statistics, business intelligence and innovation, representing Portugal at UNWTO, OECD and European Travel Commission. He is currently Chairman of the European Travel Commission’s Market Intelligence Group and Vice-Chair of the OECD Tourism Committee.

Dr. Tadayuki (Tad) Hara is an Associate Professor at Rosen College of Hospitality Management, a Senior Research Fellow at Dick Pope Sr. Institute for Tourism Studies, at University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, USA. He is a consultant for Tourism Statistics and TSA program of UNWTO, in addition to serving similar consulting capacity for UNESCO Institute for Statistics and ICAO in the area of their satellite accountings. He has been offering free online course (MOOC) on TSA since 2013 sharing knowledge on SNA, I-O and TSA with over three thousand students all over the world.

Emad Hassan is currently the energy advisor to the Minister of Tourism in Egypt, leading the Ministry’s efforts on green transformation. He has over 30 years of global experience in the Energy Efficiency and clean energy fields with long-term presence in the U.S., Egypt and Jordan. Earlier in his career, he held various positions at Southern California Edison, one of the U.S. lead utilities in energy efficiency where he was part of a pioneering group that developed and implemented over $80 million of energy efficiency performance contracts with public facilities in Southern California.

Following this rich experience, he provided consultancy and project management services to a variety of international development organizations such as USAID, World Bank and GIZ in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South America. His professional experience spanned over a wide spectrum of energy-related domains including market development strategies, policy analysis, program implementation, financing mechanisms, capacity building, and climate change mitigation activities.

Between 2009-2012, he served as an advisor to Egypt’s ‘Supreme Energy Council’ led by Egypt’s Prime Minister, where he oversaw the development of a roadmap to advance Egypt’s energy efficiency agenda.

Mr. Hassan holds a Master degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

Raúl Hernández-Martín holds the Chair in Tourism in the University of La Laguna (Canary Islands) where he is Senior Lecturer of Tourism Economics at the Department of Applied Economics and Quantitative Methods. He obtained his PhD in Economics after a research stay at the University of Social Sciences of Toulouse. He is director of the PhD program in Tourism at the University of La Laguna. His research focuses on tourism economic impacts, tourism satellite accounts, subnational tourism statistics and island tourism development. His research papers have been published among others in Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Management and Tourism Economics.

Sven C. Kaumanns is economist. He started his career in Statistics in 2001 in the Federal Statistical Office of Germany in various indicator and business statistics related domains. Between 2008 and 2012, Sven worked on start-term statistics as national expert for the Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT). After he returned from EUROSTAT, Sven started working in environmental-economic accounts and was mainly active in economy-wide material flow accounts but also in monetary environmental-economic accounting.

Currently he is heading the environmental-economic accounts and sustainable development indicators section in the Federal Statistical Office of Germany. In this capacity, he is representing Germany in different national, European and international forums on environmental-economic accounts and sustainable development indicators: Among others, the United Nations Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Accounting (UN CEEA) and the United Nations Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs).

Mr. John Kester (Delft, The Netherlands; 1962) is Director of the Statistics, Trends and Policy Programme at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). He is supervising the team that carries out the activities with regard to statistics standards and measurement, implementation and capacity building, data collection and compilation, analysis, short-term and long-term trends in tourism and forecasting, marketing and promotional techniques.

He started his career in the UNWTO Secretariat in January 1997. Since its inception in 2003, he has been involved in the development and compilation of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, a publication aimed at monitoring the short-term evolution of tourism, as well as the annual UNWTO Tourism Highlights. He has also been in charge of the preparation of the long-term forecast UNWTO Tourism Towards 2030.

Before joining the UNWTO, Mr Kester graduated in Social Science with a specialisation in research methodology and data analysis from the University of Leiden (the Netherlands) and worked for seven years at Statistics Netherlands as researcher in the field of socio-cultural statistics.

Demi Kotsovos is Chief of the Satellite Accounts and Special Studies section in National Economic Accounts Division at Statistics Canada. With over two decades of experience, she’s no stranger to compiling tourism and culture satellite accounts in addition to other macroeconomic statistics.

Ph.D. in Economics, Master degree in information theory

Joined the United Nations Statistics Division in 1997 and ever since has been working on different areas of statistics: national accounts, energy and industry statistics and trade in services statistics/tourism statistics/ use of big data for official statistics. Earlier, served at the Hungarian Central Statistical office as head of the Department of National Accounts (1996-97). Fulfilled different teaching assignments, conducted research on theory of statistics and economic statistics at K Marx University of Economic Sciences (Budapest) and University of Miskolc (between 1982 and 1996) – has been a research fellow at different universities during his tenure (University of Texas, Dartmouth College, Limburg Business School, Helsinki School of Economics).

Elena Kukharevich was born in 1970 in Belarus. She has higher education, having graduated from the Belarus State Economics University and later on from the Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus.

She has built her professional career in the national statistics, where during 28 years she rose from economist to the Deputy Chair of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus.

Scope of competence: ensures methodological guidance of price statistics; service statistics; trade statistics; labour market and earnings statistics; living standards statistics and household sample surveys; education statistics; sports, tourism and culture statistics.

She is a member of the Interagency Expert and Coordination Board on Tourism to the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. Under her direct supervision, the tourism satellite account (TSA) was introduced in the statistical practice of Belarus in 2016, Methodological guidelines for constructing STA of the Republic of Belarus were developed, and pilot estimates of the tourism share in the national GDP were produced.

May C. Lacao is working for the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) on integrating natural capital accounting into the agency’s system and building partnerships for sustainability projects. She was a lead ecosystem account developer and had participated for more than three years in the piloting of World Bank-led global project Wealth Accounting and Valuation Ecosystem Services in the province of Palawan, Philippines.

Ms. Lacao earned her Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of the Philippines Diliman. She had headed the Provincial Economic Enterprise Development Office (PEEDO) of the Provincial Government of Palawan.

After finishing university courses related to Export and Tourism at the University of Economics Vienna and the study in Geography at the University of Vienna, Mr. Laimer has been started working at Statistics Austria in May 1993. He is presently Deputy Director of the Directorate “Spatial Statistics” at Statistics Austria, and mainly responsible for “Tourism and Travel Statistics“ and  “Motor Vehicles Registration and Road Safety Statistics“. Since 2000 he is also teaching at several Austrian universities (tourism) statistics.

Between 2000 and 2002 Mr. Laimer was working as a consultant on methodological issues related to “Tourism Statistics” and “Tourism Satellite Accounts” (TSA) for Eurostat, since 2004 he has been doing consultancies in various countries (e.g. Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Hungary, Iran, Oman, Slovenia, Taiwan, Turkey). Between 2001 and 2006 he was chair of the “Statistical Working Party” of the OECD Tourism Committee, 2016 and 2017 Mr. Laimer is  chairing the UNWTO Committee on Statistics and the TSA.

Dr Pali Lehohla is the Statistician General of South Africa, a position he held since November of 2000. He is the Chair of Africa Symposium for Statistical Development (ASSD), a country led initiative established in 2006 and the aim of which is to put statistical evidence at the centre of policy in Africa. From 2005 to 2010 he served in a variety of portfolios. He was Chair of the United Nations Statistics Commission, Chair of Statistics Commission Africa and also Chair of PARIS21 a global partnership for statistical development in the 21st Century. He is also the Chair for the Sub-Group on Harmonization of Statistics in Africa.

He has served as an advisor to in-conflict, post-conflict and fragile political environments. In this regard he was Chief Advisor to the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MOC) of the 2008 Population and Housing Census of Sudan which was part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005.

He served as a UN envoy to the Census of Cambodia in 1998. He undertook a Population Census readiness mission in Afghanistan in 2008 and another in Iraq in 2009. He is Vice President of the International Statistics Institute (ISI) and led the hosting of the 57th Session of the ISI held in Durban South Africa in 2009.

Under his leadership he has established partnerships with universities in South Africa in advancing tuition of statistical training, research and applications in state planning. Of note is the establishment of the Centre for Regional and Urban Innovation and Statistical Exploration (CRUISE) at the University of Stellenbosch. Under the auspices of the Africa Census Analysis Project (ACAP), he initiated a series of publications on the Demography of South Africa as primary tuition material for higher learning and advancing pan-African scholarship. The first book towards achieving this objective on the South African series was published in 2005.

He obtained his degree from the National University of Lesotho (NUL) with double major in Statistics and Economics, undertook post-graduate studies in demography from the United Nations Regional Institute for Population Studies (UNRIPS) at the University of Ghana and Senior Executive Programme jointly awarded by Wits and Harvard Universities. In December 2015, his alma mater, the University of Ghana recognised his contribution in statistics and honoured him and the University of Stellenbosch conferred on Pali Lehohla an Honorary Doctorate for his extensive contribution in global affairs.

I am worked with BPS-Statistics Indonesia since 1983, in several divisions and directorates. Currently I am Director of Finance, ICT and Tourism Statistics (since 2016) which one of the task is to manage production of Tourism Statistics and other statistics related to tourism. I got Phd in econometrics from Monash University Australia and master in economics from Wollongong University.

Professor Geoffrey Lipman was Executive Director at The International Air Transport Association (IATA) President of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) for its first decade and then Assistant Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). He has been a long time leading advocate of green growth in the Travelism (Travel & Tourism) sector.

He was the driving force for WTTC’s seminal economic research, as well as UNWTO’s ST-EP Program and Davos Climate Declaration Process

He is currently co-founder of SUNx – the Strong Universal Network – a community focused, climate resilience movement, through Impact-Travel, inspired by his friend, the late Maurice Strong, who led many historical sustainable development initiatives, including the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

Lipman is Visiting Professor at Hasselt University in Belgium and at Victoria University in Australia, he has co-authored 2 books and numerous journal articles on Green Growth and Travelism.

Ms. Liu has unique insight about environment management especially on watershed management and multi-national collaborations, with extensive experiences in integrated watershed management and effective management of protected area. As the Program officer, Ms. Liu has been working on the development, management and implementation of programmatic initiatives, projects and activities in China. Ms. Liu now is the focal point of Green List of Protected and Conserved Area in Asia Pacific countries, and she is member of global Community Engagement Team of Greenlist as well.

Ms. Liu obtained master degree on Environmental Engineering of Tsinghua University, China, and post-master degree of International Environment Management from MinesParisTech, France. Before joining IUCN, Ms. Liu was based in Shanghai as the Corporate Responsibility Manager.

Jingyan Liu, Ph.D., Professor, Associate Dean of Business School, Sun Yat-Sen University. She is the China representative of APacCHRIE Board. She also serves as Associate Editor of International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and Editorial Board Member of Journal of China Tourism Research. Her research fields contain tourism management and sustainable development. Her research is funded by National Science Foundation of China and the Guangdong Tourism Administration on TSA project.

MA Yiliang is vice director of Tourism Statistics & Analysis Center, CNTA Tourism Data Center, as well as director of National Laboratory for Tourism Economy, China Tourism Academy, an official organization directly affiliated to CNTA. He got PhD of Economics from Renmin University of China. His research interests lie in tourism economy, topics like tourism satellite account, economic accounting for tourism industry, application of big data in tourism statistics.

After working in CTA, he has been devoted to the national tourism statistical works. One of his works has got the national patent. Right now he is also exploring the usage of big data in tourism statistics. For example, with the help of the mobile phone signaling data and the online consumption data, he is trying to measure segmented tourism markets, like rural tourism, weekend tourism, city tourism, red tourism and etc.

Work experience:
Jan. 2017- Deputy Director General for Tourism Knowledge and Studies
2015-2016 Deputy Head for Strategy and Support to Tourism Industry
2010 -2015 Counselor of Tourism for the Embassy of Spain in Japan, Korea & Taiwan
2008-2010 Deputy Director General for Cooperation and Tourism Competitiveness
2007-2008 Deputy Secretary General of the Instituto de Turismo de España
2002-2007 Counselor of Tourism for the Embassy of Spain in USA, Colombia & Venezuela based in Miami, Florida
1997-2002 Counselor of Tourism for the Embassy of Spain in USA based in Chicago, Illinois
1995-1997 Head of tourist information in Instituto de Turismo de España (Spain Tourism Board)

Education and Training
2010 Master in Communications at INAP
1993 Member of the Public Administration Body (Cuerpo Superior de Administradores Civiles del Estado)
1989 Master in Law at Autónoma University in Madrid

Sarah leads the Destination Marketing Sales team at TripAdvisor, for the Asia Pacific region. The team is focused on working with and supporting all tourism boards in Asia Pacific, as well as helping local hospitality businesses better understand the impact of digital on their business. Under Sarah’s leadership, the Asia Pacific team launched the first TripAdvisor’s Destination Academy, a three-day Digital Boot camp for government organisations and the CEO Challenge, a regional campaign that supports the discovery of less well-known destinations in the region.

Prior to her current role, Sarah was based in TripAdvisor’s London office as part of the Destination Marketing Sales team and was responsible for the European, Asian and African markets. During that time, she worked closely with key clients such as South Africa Tourism and Greek National Tourism Organization, sharing best practices with industry partners. Her work with South Africa Tourism on its first global strategic partnership was featured in the recent UNWTO E-Marketing Handbook.

Sarah is current Chairperson of Pacific Asia Travel Association. She first joined the PATA Executive Board when she was elected the Industry Council Chairperson in 2014 and was elected Vice Chairperson in May 2016.

Prior to joining TripAdvisor, Sarah held MICE and international marketing positions at the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Visit Flanders, where she worked with industry partners drive awareness of both destinations. Sarah was a senior executive at Cesar Ritz Colleges in Hong Kong before that.

Born and raised in Hong Kong SAR, Sarah has also lived in Beijing and Australia and is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, giving her a deep understanding and appreciation of the region.

A trusted and respected global strategic advisor and five-time author in Tourism & Development, Anita Mendiratta is the Founder and Managing Director of CACHET CONSULTING – an international consulting firm working closely with leaders in governments, private sector businesses, and international organizations.

Anita has established a reputation for providing critical direction, insight and inspiration into destination development, recovery and competitiveness.

Alongside her business leadership, Anita is also honoured to be:

• Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the UNWTO,
• Strategic partner to the WORLD BANK GROUP, IATA and WTTC
• Lead consultant of CNN International’s T.A.S.K. GROUP

In 2011 Anita authored “COME CLOSER: How Tourism is Shaping the Future of Nations”, nominated for the Financial Times Book of the Year, and regarded by Dr. Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation UNWTO, as:
“an invaluable resource for tourism leaders, policy-makers and stakeholders as they drive the global tourism economy forward”, emphasizing “Anita’s ability to convey the importance of tourism in terms of its economic value comes second only to her capacity to reveal the very human side of tourism.”

This was followed in 2013 by Anita’s authoring of “Tourism Stories: How Tourism Enriched My Life”, and in 2015 by “Tourism Shaping Tomorrow – Global Observatories Of Sustainable Tourism – Building A Better Tourism Future” and “Tourism Stories (Volume 2): My Story, My Community, Our Future”, both books on special commission by the UNWTO. In 2016, she authored the Philippines Edition of “Tourism Stories” on special assignment for the UNWTO, Philippines Department of Tourism and USAID.

As a result of her international reputation as an advisor, author, presenter and confidante at the highest levels, Anita has become a sought after speaker, moderator, Board member and coach for leaders, businesses and nations across the globe.

Ana Moniche Bermejo has a Master in Science (MSc) in Urban Planning and Environmental Assessment and Management from Oxford Brookes University. A degree in Economics from Universidad de Málaga. She is currently working as Senior Officer of the Statistics and Market Research Area for the regional Government of Andalucía (Spain). She has been working as Research Associate at the University of East Anglia during 2012 and 2013. Her expertise ranges from Tourism Statistics, Surveys implementation and exploitation of results, analysis of tourism demand and supply, impact of cultural or sport events, econometrics and time series analysis, tourism indicators system, sustainability and tourism. She is the leader of the NECSTouR Indicator Working Group. NECSTouR is the Network of European Regions for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism, bringing together 30 strong regions competent in tourism associated to tourism-related academic organisations and representatives of sustainable and responsible tourism business networks from 17 European Countries. Since 2007 NECSTouR has been at the forefront of European tourism policy, lobbying to strengthen the presence of regions in the European arena.

Currently Fiji’s Deputy Government Statistician since July 2016.

Chief Economist Macroeconomic Policy and Planning Division of the Strategic Planning Office for the Ministry of Economy from December 2009 till June 2016.

Seconded to the Asia Development Bank in Manila, Philippines from August 2012 to September 2015 as the Director’s Advisor at the ADB Board of Directors.

Served at the Macroeconomic Policy and Planning Office since December 2000, climbing up the ranks as Economist to Chief Economist for a span of 15 years.

Served Seven (7) years as Statistician Balance of Payments with the Fiji Bureau of Statistics from 1994 to 2000.

Graduated with a Bachelor of Technology and Bachelor of Arts (economics) at the University of the South Pacific, and Postgraduate Certificate on International Relations at the University of Fiji.

Vincent Nijs is research project manager at the research department of Visit Flanders – Belgium. Vincent acquired his Master in Sport Sciences at the University of Leuven, focussing on sport and leisure marketing and management and this year he finished the MBA in Tourism Management at Modul University. Vincent is working with tourism related data and research for 17 years, since the year 2000, and also gained experience as project director of an online research company in Belgium. He is currently focussing on a project about carrying capacity and sustainable tourism development in Flanders. Sharing practical leisure and tourism insights, lecturing, translating and presenting tourism related business intelligence are some of his main interests.
Vincent is member of the European Travel Commission’s Market Intelligence Committee and former chairman of this group.

Carl is currently a Director of the Institute for the Development of Environmental-Economic Accounting (IDEEA). From 2010 – 2013, Carl was the lead author and editor of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) – the international standard for this area of work. This work built on a long career working in the national accounts, including 5 years as head of the Australian national accounts, and roles in the advancement of various national accounting work including the measurement of financial output, productivity and capital stock, tourism accounts and measures of sustainable development.

Using this rich understanding of national accounts concepts and statistical practice, and his experience in engaging with policy makers in the use of accounts, Carl is able to confidently convey national accounting ideas across sectors and disciplines and find solutions for the integration of environmental and economic data to support discussion of sustainability. In recent years, he has been a leading player in closing the gap between national and corporate accounting approaches to natural capital accounting.

His current work involves projects on environmental-economic accounting and sustainability measurement with the UN World Tourism Organization on Measuring Sustainable Tourism, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN on SDG indicators, the UN Environment Program on TEEB, and several Australian companies.

Mr. Romeo S. Recide is currently the Deputy National Statistician handling the Sectoral Statistics Office of the Philippine Statistics Authority. In this position he manages the generation, compilation, analysis and dissemination of social, economic and macroeconomic statistics. This involves the conduct of household and establishment surveys on family income and expenditure, labor force, health, production, trade and prices, and the compilation of national accounts.

Before occupying this current position, he was the Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics in the Department of Agriculture where his main responsibility was the generation of statistics on production, prices and trade of agricultural and fishery commodities and other related farm household information. He was also designated as Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning of the Department of Agriculture. In this position his major commitments included trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and serving as Senior Official Meeting (SOM) Leader of the Philippines in the ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry Meetings.

Mr. Recide is involved in regional and international organizations and bodies dealing with improvements of statistics on agriculture, food security, human rights, disasters, labor and others

Cherry Lyn S. Rodolfo has twenty years of experience in tourism and aviation research and consulting for government, private sector and international development partners. She has worked on projects and served as resource person for international groups such as GIZ, AusAID, USAID, APEC Secretariat, ASEAN Secretariat, World Tourism Organization, World Health Organization, Economic Research Institute of Asia, and the Asian Development Bank Institute. She served as lead convenor for international conferences such as the APEC Conference on Enhancing Air Connectivity and ASEAN Trade in Health Services. From 1997 to 2015, she taught economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific and served as Program Director of the Master of Science in Industrial Economics for three years. From 2013 to 2016, she served as Co-Chair of the Export Development Council Networking Committee on Transport and Logistics and President of the REID Foundation Inc. She earned her Master of Science in Industrial Economics from the Center for Research and Communication and her Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from the Ateneo de Manila University.

Date of Birth: 1st October 1964
A. Badan Pusat Statistik Republik Indonesia BPS-Statististik Indonesia:
Jan 2017 – recently: Deputy Director for Tourism Statistics
July 2014 – Jan 2017: Deputy Director for Export Statistics
March 2012 – June 2014: Deputy Director for Wholesale Price Statistics
March 2008 – March 2012: Head of General Affair Institute of Statistics
November 2006 – March 2008: Head of BPS, Kabupaten Tangerang
March 2005 – November 2006: Head of Regional Account & Statistical Analysis, BPs Province of Nangroe Aceh Darussalam
August 1993 – March 2005: Head of Statistical Evaluation Section of Large & Medium Manufacturing Statistic Division
October 1986 – August 1993: Staffa at Large & Medium Manufacturing Statistics Division
B. Boston Institute for Development Economic (BIDE): 2002: Sort Time Expert for UNTAET (Timor Leste)
C. Development Studies Project (BAPPENAS-BPS-USAID): 1988-1989, 1995: Research Assistant
D. The Flagler Management: 1990: Research Assistant
Teaching: Statistical Methods; Official Statistics; National Account
Paper & Report:
Indonesian Urban Housing Market Data Documentation, with Yahya Jammal, Report to the World Bank and the State Ministry of Housing, December, 1989.
Classifying Manufacturing Production by Commodity vs by Establishment: Evidence Using 1998 Annual Survey Data, with Yahya Jammal, STAT Project, Indonesia, August, 2001. Paper available on BPS Statistics Indonesia website: www.bps.go.id/papers/Papers_and_Analysis/Papers_by_BPS_and_USAID_Project.
Gross Domestic Product: East Timor 2000, with Yahya Jammal, John Kuiper, Frank de Leeuw, Kusmadi Saleh, Wiwiek Arumwaty, Report to UNTAET and the Central Fiscal Authority, East Timor, March, 2002.
Education:
Master of Science: Regional & rural Economic Development Planning, Bogor Institute of Agriculture, 2004.
Sarjana Kesehatan Masyarakat: Public Health, University of Indonesia, 1999.
Bachelor of Statistics: Institute of Statistics, 1986.

Aki-Hiro SATO graduated from Tohoku University, Japan in 1997 and received the Doctor of Information Sciences in Graduate School of Information Sciences from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 2001. From 2000 to 2001, he worked as a Doctoral Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in Research Institute of Electrical Communication of Tohoku University. From 2001 to 2006, he worked as a Research Associate in Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University. Since 2007, he has been an Assistant Professor in Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan. He has been a research fellow of Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) since February 2015 and a PRESTO researcher of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) since October 2015. A.-H. Sato’s research has concerned on issues of microscopic dynamics and statistical properties in complex socioeconomic systems based on data-centric science. His current research interest is to construct an infrastructure for world grid square statistics generated from various data sources such as government statistics, data collected from the Internet, and satellite imageries and its applications to monitoring global sustainable tourism for development regarding geographical characteristics. Aki-Hiro Sato published a book entitled Applied Data-Centric Social Sciences, Springer (Tokyo) in 2014. He was a reviewer for several international refereed journals about economics, physics, and information sciences. He experienced to organize several international conferences as an organizer, program committee member, and chair.

Ms. van der Pol has been working at UNWTO since 2009 in promoting and supporting the development of tourism statistics at global, regional and national levels.

She initiated and has been leading the Measuring Sustainable Tourism (MST) project since its inception in 2015 under the tutelage of the UNWTO Committee for Statistics and TSA. She represents UNWTO in various international statistical fora, including the UN Statistical Commission, the Committee of Coordination of Statistical Activities and the UN Committee on Experts on Environmental Economic Accounting.

Ms. van der Pol has a Research Master’s degree (cum laude) in development economics, and a Bachelor’s degree in international economics and business from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

As head of corporate responsibility and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance at Hilton Worldwide, Maxime Verstraete is responsible for ensuring the company’s close to 5,000 properties meet the highest standards in the industry. Maxime oversees key initiatives to help create opportunities for youth, preserve the environment and strengthen the communities where Hilton operates. Maxime is based out of the company’s global headquarters in McLean, VA.

Maxime has over 15 years of experience in the hospitality industry and three years in sustainability and corporate responsibility at Hilton. He was also responsible for compliance with the ADA Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to joining Hilton in 2005, Maxime worked in hotel operations at various properties in the U.S., France and Mexico including the world-famous Torrey Pines resort in La Jolla, Calif. and the Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme.

Maxime has a master’s degree in Information Technology from the Ecole Française d’Electronique et d’Informatique (EFREI) in Paris and speaks English, French,Spanish and some German.

Mr. Carlos Vogeler is currently Executive Director for Member Relations at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), based in headquarters Madrid, Spain. He is responsible for the coordination and supervision of Regional Programmes and the Affiliate Members Programme, ensuring a coordinated approach of the Organization in Member’s relations and services. Since January 2009 he has held as well the position of Regional Director for the Americas at UNWTO.

He is a tenured professor at University “Rey Juan Carlos”, Madrid, at the Department of Business Economics and is the author of various university textbooks and articles on international tourism, business and structure.

Mr. Vogeler has held management positions in the private tourism sector, including Pullmantur, one of the largest Spanish Tour Operators (as a Deputy Managing Director) and in RCI (Resort Condominiums International), part of the Wyndham Worldwide Group, one of the world’s largest hospitality groups, where he was Vice president for Western Europe and then Vice-president of Global Account Strategy & Industry Relations.

He was Member of the board of Affiliate Members of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) since 1993 and served as Chairman from 2005 to 2008. He is also a founding member of the Spanish Association of Experts in Tourism – AECIT.

Mr. Vogeler carried out his studies in Canada and Spain, where he graduated in Tourism Business Administration at the “Escuela Oficial de Turismo de Madrid” (now University “Rey Juan Carlos”). He has post-graduate studies in Business Administration by the IESE Business School of the University of Navarra, Spain.

He is a Spanish national, born in Venezuela and has lived in Canada, France and Spain.

A PhD student in Cardiff Business School, current working on the research project “The Impact of tourism Foreign Direct Investment on Economic Development: an illustration by Tourism Satellite Account in Wales”