The international congress brought together international exponents of the industry and sought to promote meetings tourism. The new version of the ICCA Chile Summit, considered the most important meeting for the meetings industry worldwide, was held at Metropolitan Santiago and was attended by public authorities, industry representatives and prominent speakers. The ICCA Chile Summit took place between Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 July and brought together experts in the field of congresses, conferences and international events, being a roadmap for the main leaders of the meetings tourism industry. At the beginning of the meeting, the regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of ICCA, Andrés Escandón, said that “this event arises from the need to make Chile visible in the Global Industry of Associations, to the International Congresses. They are two days of a lot of tactical content in which we invite very relevant international visitors from Latin America and the Caribbean, to talk about the latest trends, challenges, challenges and opportunities facing the industry, and to support Chile in the whole process of reactivation of meeting tourism”. He also highlighted that “coming from the convention center industry, it is very important to be today in Metropolitan Santiago, operated by GL events, precisely because it symbolizes the return of meeting tourism. With ICCA Chile Summit and GL events, what we want is to make visible what they have been doing, and that it becomes the platform and the epicenter of congresses at local, regional and global level”. On the occasion, the Undersecretary of Tourism, Verónica Kunze stressed that “meeting tourism is very important for Chile. During 2019 we received close to 500 thousand meeting tourists, who left 18% of the foreign exchange left by tourists arriving in our country. They have double the spending, so meeting tourism, congress tourism, incentive tourism, is very important for us and we will continue working to keep bringing more congresses and conventions to our country”. The authority also commented that “we are very happy about the opening of the Metropolitan Santiago convention center, which is very important because it has a size and infrastructure that will allow us to receive events, congresses and important meetings”, added Kunze. Finally, the executive director of GL events Chile, Francisco Sotomayor, highlighted that “ICCA has a very special connotation for our Group, since it promotes meeting tourism and associativity like no other, presenting values and actions in which GL events believes and is actively involved”. “As GL events, we believe that we can play an important role to strongly increase meeting tourism in the country, not only with our fairs and our two venues, Parque Fisa and Metropolitan Santiago, but also with our own events that we have itinerant across the planet, and especially the offices of attraction of large international congresses and conventions that we have in our network”, he added. As part of the international meeting, various panels analyzed the importance of meetings tourism for the development of destinations, the role of convention bureaus in the creation and execution of a destination promotion strategy, the importance of the private sector in boosting a destination’s promotion and attraction strategy, and the role of international associations in strengthening and transforming the industry. Also analyzed were the commercial strategies for attracting international events, the reinvention of leadership, and the ABC of the Meetings Industry: Characteristics, Players, Roles, and Opportunities. Press Contact: Michelle Helguero +56990162752
GL events, the new concessionaire of the world-class meeting center located in the Vitacura district, will seek to be an exponent in events and services, taking care of the environment and inviting the community to be part of events at no cost.
Venues of the GL events Group in Chile, as of July 2021, have the Safe & Clean certification granted by APAVE, an international organization specialized in corporate risk management with more than 150 years of experience.
The fair was well attended by the healthcare world and generated great opportunities for new business.