The UNWTO Course Tourism Competitiveness: Tourism planning and product development held in the State of Yucatán, Mexico, from 28 November to 2 December, closed on Friday by Arik Starolposky, Director General of the Centre for Tourism Studies, and Omar Valdez, Executive Director of the UNWTO.Themis Foundation.

This course was inaugurated on Monday 28 by Alejandro Varela, Deputy Director of UNWTO Regional Programme for the Americas; Ricardo Anaya, Deputy Secretary of Tourism Planning of Mexico; Santiago Noboa, OAS; Marcela Buzo, Deputy Director of the Multilateral Cooperation of the Foreign Affairs Secretariat; Juan José Martín, Secretary of Tourism of the State of Yucatán, Arik Starolposky, Director General of the Centre Tourism Studies in Mexico; and Sonia Figueras, UNWTO.Capacity Programme.

This UNWTO.Capacity initiative, wishing to strengthen the participant’s skills and practical experience in identifying the tourism vocation of a destination, tourism development initiatives, planning and design of innovative tourism products according to supply and demand characteristics, was attended by more than 40 officials from national, regional and / or local governments as well as from the private and third sectors from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

As part of the theoretical-practical methodology used by the experts, Humberto Rivas and Rodolfo Lizano, on the objectives of tourism development, tourism destination strategic planning and tourism product and services development and design, the participants went, on a fieldtrip, to Izamal to gather information and interview various Tourism stakeholders from the private, public and third sectors.