TOURISE CEMENTS TOURISM'S ROLE AS STRATEGIC ECONOMIC SYSTEM AT DAVOS

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- TOURISE, the global platform shaping a new horizon for tourism, successfully advanced the sector’s strategic importance at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, advocating for its recognition as a vital economic system connecting industries, economies, and regions.

Often overlooked as a siloed industry, TOURISE pressed the importance of tourism being recognised as a strategic sector, contributing one in every US$10 to global gross domestic product and uplifting every industry it touches. (US$1=RM3.98)

Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of TOURISE, Ahmed Al Khateeb said these partnerships will shape the next decade of tourism, creating trust and shared purpose to move the world forward.

“Tourism is more than a lifestyle sector; it functions as a strategic economic system. TOURISE serves as a platform where leaders form alliances to build shared solutions where technology aligns with community development, finance with sustainability, and education with mobility,” he said in a statement.

The Davos programme was anchored by two strategic workshops: ‘Can Tourism Save the World?’ and ‘Agentic Tourism: From Insight to Action’. The latter advanced the development of an Agentic Tourism Protocol, a shared framework designed to enable safe, connected, and interoperable artificial intelligence systems across the sector.

The workshops drew high-level participation from global executives and technologists, including leaders from Trip.com, Visa, TikTok, PayPal, Salesforce, Forbes, Avolta, and ByteDance, underscoring tourism’s growing role as a platform for growth and innovation across diverse industries.

TOURISE also sponsored the annual Women Leaders Reception, where Advisory Board Member and Saudi Arabia Ministry of Tourism Deputy Minister of International Affairs, Hawazen Nassief, emphasised the necessity of advancing women into leadership roles within a sector where they represent nearly half of the global workforce.

Davos marked the start of TOURISE’s 2026 global calendar, which will feature cross-sector workshops and new partnerships, propelling the platform’s momentum toward its second summit scheduled for March 2027.

TOURISE is the world’s premier platform shaping a new horizon for global tourism, operating under the umbrella of the Saudi Ministry of Tourism. Its inaugural summit took place in November 2025 in Riyadh.

-- BERNAMA