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Equity and women empowerment, key in the FiturNext 2021 programme

FiturNext 2021 is getting ready. From May 19 to 23, the FITUR observatory dedicated to promoting good and sustainable tourism practices will make the role of women in the tourism sector visible. As part of the International Tourism Fair in Madrid (FITUR), the event will also host the awards ceremony for the winning initiatives of the FiturNext 2021 Challenge.

Promoting entrepreneurship and equality for women

There are many professionals and experts in the tourism industry who will share their experience and trajectory in projects that value equity and female empowerment.

Among them is Cristina Figueroa Domecq, professor at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and author of the book Mujer y alta dirección en el sector turístico. Shewill talk about her project WomEnt, at the University of Surrey (United Kingdom) and funded by the European Commission,  that promotes women entrepreneurship in the tourism sector.

Another participant will be Antonia Varela, director of the Starlight Foundation, which won the FiturNext 2020 award. She is also involved in two women empowerment projects: an initiative to make the role of women in rural areas visible and a pioneering programme on how astro-tourism can provide support to women in Pakistan.

An award for initiatives that boost gender equality

Moreover, FiturNext 2021 will host the awards ceremony for the three winning initiatives of the FiturNext Observatory. The winners from more than 400 projects analysed will be selected based on how they contribute to gender equality and women empowerment and what is their ability to replicability, that is, which are the possibilities of the project to be reproduced by other people in different contexts within the sector.

In addition, the event will host the presentation of the FiturNext 2021 report, which will collect key factors to address the current challenges in gender equality to generate value in tourism, accompanied by a large number of presentations and debates.

We will be able to give more details soon. Stay tuned!