European Travel Commission Announces New President

ETC President Luís Araújo

The European Travel Commission (ETC), representing 33 national tourism organisations of Europe, has appointed Luís Araújo from Turismo de Portugal as its new president for a three-year term.

Araújo was selected by ETC’s 99th General Meeting and takes over from Peter De Wilde, CEO of VisitFlanders, who held the position for six years.

“Taking over the mandate during these unprecedented times, Luís Araújo will lead European destinations’ joint efforts to rebuild the tourism sector in Europe in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis,” ETC said.

Araújo is a long-standing member of the tourism sector with over 20 years of experience. Heading the Portuguese National Tourism Authority since February 2016, he leads a team of 650 people and 350 external trainers, and coordinates 20 tourism delegations covering 26 foreign markets for Portugal.

Previously, Araújo was a Board Member at Group Pestana (the largest hotel group in Portugal with over 100 hotels in 15 countries) responsible for operations in Latin America while also leading the sustainability department of the group. He also served as Head of the Cabinet of the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism between 2005 and 2007.The newly elected President aims to position ETC as the top influential voice in the sector’s transformation towards responsible, sustainable, digital and resilient tourism of tomorrow.

“One of the main goals is to ensure that tourism has a stronger voice in Europe and the EU, through better coordination among countries, in view of a quick and sustainable recovery of the tourism sector,” Luís Araújo said.

Araújo’s work will be supported by ETC’s vice presidents.

Robert Andrzejczyk from the Polish Tourism Organisation (PTO), Magda Antonioli from the Italian Government Tourism Board (ENIT) and the newly elected Kristjan Staničić from the Croatian National Tourist Board (CNTB) will be coordinating ETC’s advocacy activities focusing on visa facilitation, connectivity and sustainability.