Global Youth Tourism Summit aims at Youth Empowerment and engagement in the Tourism Sector

In this episode, the Director of Europe at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Alessandra Priante has been sharing with me the objective of next year’s  Global Youth Tourism Summit and what it seeks to achieve. She talks about tourism restart in Europe and rounds it up with her own journey into tourism. 

She was the Chief of multilateral international relations (UNWTO, OECD and EU) and tourism policy for the Ministry of Agricultural, Food, Forestry and Tourism Policies of Italy. She has also actively participated in the research and analysis work behind the preparation of the National Strategic Plan for Tourism 2017-2022. 

She is a first-degree business graduate at the top Italian business university, Università Luigi Bocconi, and holds the Executive MBA at Luiss Guido Carli University and an International Master in Audio-visual Management. She successfully merged her strong experience in corporate finance and M&A operations, developed within international investment banks in her initial job posts, with her cultural expertise, joining since 2002 the Italian Ministry of Culture - Direction for Cinema, with the task of restructuring public finances for the culture sector. As a major output, she created the first public RSU in the audio-visual sector, focused on the design, set-up, and implementation of the most important sector reforms. 

As a firm believer in the importance of international networks and in the power of lobbying, she has created, has been part of and at times initiated various international think tanks and represented Italy in international and European Institutions devoted to culture. 

As an expert also of the Middle East area, she was appointed in the years 2010-2015 the Diplomatic Cultural Representative for the Gulf Area (UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrein, Kuwait), with the task of taking care of promoting Italian culture and education. 

In line with her academic preparation and research attitude, Alessandra has published numerous sector publications and books and teaches culture management and international audio-visual analysis at some of the major Universities in Italy for post-graduate students. 

Alessandra is a cinephile and a trained musician. She loves art and culture, her Country and her family.