Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen
Chief Financial Officer
The Red Sea Development Company

Jay Rosen is the CFO for The Red Sea Development Company, a closed joint stock company wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. He oversees finance, investment, and asset management for a new international luxury tourism destination set along the Red Sea as part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. He is responsible for driving long-term strategic value by planning, implementing, managing, and controlling all financial and investment related activities of the Company.

Jay is an accomplished real estate investment and finance executive with broad experience in acquisitions, development, asset management, corporate finance, capital raising, and strategic planning. Over the course of his career he has participated in over $5.5 billion in real estate investments including large, integrated resort developments, single asset and portfolio acquisitions, and corporate mergers and acquisitions. Jay has extensive experience in hospitality and mixed-use assets in addition to residential, retail, gaming, and office investments in North America, the Caribbean, and Middle East.

Jay holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration where he concentrated on real estate finance.

Professor Lee Miles

Professor Lee Miles
Professor of Crisis & Disaster Management
Bournemouth University

Lee joined the Bournemouth University Disaster Management Centre on the 1September 2015. Lee is an international relations scholar, educated at the Universities of Lancaster, Birmingham and Hull, receiving his PhD in Politics from the University of Hull (1999), and awarded a Docent in Political Science by Karlstad University in Sweden (2004).

Lee has enjoyed an extensive career working in departments of politics and international relations (Hull and Karlstad universities), politics and communication studies (University of Liverpool), and business school settings (Lincoln and Loughborough universities) in the UK and Sweden. At Bournemouth, he is Programme Leader of the Masters (MSc) in Disaster Management.

Professor Miles is a distinguished scholar, holding Professorships at the universities of Liverpool (2006-2009), Karlstad (2009 – 2017), Loughborough (2011-2015) and now Bournemouth (2015 – ) as well as holding honorary professorial positions at Lancaster and University College London (UCL). Lee has also twice been awarded the prestigious title of Jean Monnet Professor by the European Union (in 2003 (Hull) and in 2004 (Liverpool)) in recognition of his expertise in European foreign policy and crisis management. He has been editor of prestigious peer-reviewed academic journals, including Cooperation and Conflict (2010-2014) and the Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS) Annual Review (2001-2004), and presently is a member of editorial boards of prominent journals, such as Foreign Policy Analysis.

Lee is an award-winning commentator on disasters in the national/ international media. He featured on Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2017) on premier media outlets, such as (radio): BBC R4 Today Programme, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service News Hour Programme, Good Morning Scotland Programme, Radio Scotland, R4 Austria, BBC Radio London and BBC regional stations, and Talk Radio as well as (TV): BBC News Channel, CNN International, Good Morning Britain (ITV) and STV.

Dr. Adam Wu

Dr. Adam Wu
Chief Executive Officer
China Invests Overseas

Dr. Wu is the Chief Operating Officer of CBN which has a precise slogan “Bring the world to China and Take Chinese to the world”. The slogan summarizes the activities of CBN which now focuses on outward investment and outbound travel from China. As a consortium of organizations CBN specializes in facilitating business and investment for a large number of Chinese and foreign authorities, commercial companies and investors.

Dr. Wu have been instrumental in leading CBN to support many Chinese official delegations, investors and business groups going overseas to explore investment opportunities and/or to find business partners as well as to experience high quality travel.

Adam was privileged to be chosen to study overseas more than 30 years ago with government scholarship when China was just opening to the world with economic reforms thus, Adam has been having direct experience in dealing with Chinese and foreign authorities, businesses and other organizations. Thirty years later China has become a major source market of ODI.

This is reflected by the current focus of CBN on supporting outwards investment from China by developing vertical portals on the China Wide Web called “China Invests Overseas with English demo home page of www.China-Invests.net of which Adam is the CEO.

Adam has been leading the team behind China Invests Overseas in supporting investment promotion authorities and projects owners to reach Chinese investors both state owned enterprises ( SOE) and private businesses across China including Hong Kong. Adam has also been an experienced investor with investments in a number of countries.

Dr. Wu has been invited to speak on various investment conferences and international summit as well as being interviewed by news media both online and offline as well as on the radio that one can see some podcasting.

Muna Haddad

Muna Haddad
Founding CEO
BARAKA

Muna Haddad is the founding CEO of BARAKA, a social enterprise in sustainable tourism development that provides consulting services for governments, NGOs, and private sector looking to utilize tourism as an economic development tool. BARAKA operates Baraka Destinations, a cluster of community owned, locally embedded tourism experiences in secondary tourism destinations including two bed and breakfasts that offer a unique taste and experience of Jordan’s villages.

Muna has been contributing new models of community-based tourism, revitalizing secondary tourism destinations in 9 countries, engaging women in rural areas in the workforce and developing community driven micro-enterprises that are creating thousands of jobs and restoring dignity to marginalized communities. Muna is the Founding President of the Jordan Trail Association, and was instrumental in the creation of the Meaningful Travel Map of Jordan.

She sits on the board of the Global Ecotourism Network, bringing the world’s regional and national ecotourism associations, networks and destinations, together with indigenous and rural peoples, global operators, professionals and academics, to grow the industry, provide advocacy, encourage thought leadership and innovation, and add greater authenticity to ecotourism. She is the recipient of the Tourism Cares Agent of Change Award and King Abdullah Bin Al Hussein Royal Decoration of the Second Degree for excellence and recently Business Woman of the Year in Jordan.

HRH Princess Dana Firas

ITSC 2019 Speaker
HRH Princess Dana Firas
President
Petra National Trust

HRH Princess Dana Firas serves as the President of Petra National Trust and is a liaison with the The Royal Hashemite Court and Jordanian government ministries.

She worked in the office of H.M. Queen Noor of Jordan on projects promoting sustainable development, peace, and human rights. Since 2008, Princess Dana has chaired the Board of the Petra National Foundation. She was named a UNESCO Goodwill ambassador in June 2017 by the UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. Her advocacy for the cause of cultural heritage preservation and awareness resulted in their inclusion in two World Tourism Organization declarations. In 2016 she joined the Board of the Fulbright Commission in Jordan.

She earned a BA in International Relations and Economics from Boston University, a MSc in International Development from the London School of Economics, and an MPA in Public Policy and Development from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she was a Fulbright scholar.

In 2003, Princess Dana co-authored an article entitled “From the Environment and Human Security to Sustainable Security and Development” in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. In 2006, she authored an article for the 2007 State of the World Report and participated in the launch of the report in Washington DC. In 2012, she contributed to a publication entitled “Tourism and Archaeological Heritage Management at Petra: Driver to Development or Destruction.”

Christopher Doyle

ITSC 2019 Speaker
Christopher Doyle
Executive Director, Europe & Central Asia
Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA)

For nearly 15 years, Chris has served an influential role in the strategic direction and innovative development of the Adventure Travel Trade Association. A global organization with more than 1,300 members in 100 countries worldwide, ATTA Members share a commitment to the responsible development of tourism.

In addition to overseeing the ATTA’s development efforts throughout Europe and Central Asia, he serves as a strategic advisor to public and private organizations, tourism boards and ministries, DMOs, NGOs and development agencies worldwide. Recognized as an inspirational speaker and innovator, he also serves as an AdventureEDU facilitator/instructor of best practices and long-range responsible tourism development planning.

Chris is based in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Global tourism challenges and investment opportunities to be addressed at the International Tourism & Investment Conference (ITIC) – London

 

This yearly event will be staged on the 1st and 2nd November 2019 at InterContinental Park Lane. It will stimulate a new thought process on key global tourism challenges, business and investment opportunities with a special focus on Africa and Island destinations.

ITIC will also provide an investment platform and act as a catalyst for growth. It will attract private equity firms, institutional investors, fund managers and influencers who have the power to channel capital and to raise funds to invest in live and bankable tourism projects.

Our objective is to make project developers (from the tourism industry of Africa, Island nations as well as emerging destinations) to meet with investors in quest of sustainable initiatives that contribute positively to the well-being of local communities while preserving the environment and enhancing the natural beauty of existing sites.

Several tourism projects originating from African countries and island nations have already been submitted for initial screening and the retained ones will be unveiled during the ‘International Tourism Investment Conference’. In the meantime, the London-based organizing company, ITIC, continues its call for bankable project proposals which can be sent to [email protected].

The first day of the conference will consist of several sessions focusing on critical issues and trends impacting the travel and tourism sector in Africa, Island nations and beyond.

The second day will be devoted exclusively to ‘Investor and Project Owner Prearranged Meetings’ with a Deal Room for those looking for investment opportunities in tourism and travel, projects, infrastructures services.

Project tables will be arranged in the grand hall of London’s InterContinental Park Lane Hotel. Each hosted by a project owner or country to showcase the attractiveness and market prospects of the proposed development to potential financiers.

Interested investors will be able to interact face-to-face with the project owners to establish fruitful initial contacts.

In his message to the delegates joining this important conference, Dr Taleb Rifai, Chairman of ITIC and former Secretary-General of UNWTO, stresses that “investing in Travel and Tourism is beyond significant economic contribution. Investing in tourism, therefore, is not just an extremely wise and correct business proposition, IT IS INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF THIS PLANET, IN THE FUTURE OF MANKIND.”

Mr. Ibrahim Ayoub, Group CEO of ITIC & Daiichi Display Ltd, voiced out that “the International Tourism & Investment Conference (ITIC) is a unique platform uniting a broad spectrum of stakeholders of the global tourism and financial services industries. We aim at bridging investments and innovation in tourism projects with a view to promoting inclusive growth and sustainable economic development for the benefit of the people.”

Since its successful launch in November 2018 (www.itic.uk/videos), the conference has garnered global interest and this year’s conference has attracted as speakers, several ministers, leading voices, luminaries, policy makers & investors.

Mr. Gerald Lawless, a member of the ITIC Advisory Board, WTTC Ambassador, Board member of the Dubai Expo 2020 and former President and CEO of the Jumeirah group, pointed out that “ ITIC can become the catalyst and the platform for actually joining investors and the tourism industry together and by ensuring we understand what travel and tourism can do for small and large communities.”

According to World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), “The direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP is expected to grow by 3.6% pa to USD4,065.0bn (3.5% of GDP) by 2029. It was USD8,811.0bn in 2018 (10.4% of GDP) and is expected to grow by 3.6% to USD9,126.7bn (10.4% of GDP) in 2019.”

It is worth noting that travel and tourism in Africa is booming. Its growth rate in 2018 stood at 5.6% compared to the global average of 3.9%. The sector contributed $194.2 billion to Africa, representing 8.5% of the continent’s GDP last year.

Delegates can register to attend the conference at www.itic.uk or by contacting the organisers at [email protected].

For more information, please contact Mr. Ibrahim Ayoub at [email protected] or call him on his mobile/whatsapp +447464034761

 

ITIC joins in the celebrations marking the World Tourism Day

 

The International Tourism & Investment Conference (ITIC) chaired by Dr Taleb Rifai, former Secretary-General of UNWTO, wishes to join all the peoples and nations around the world in the celebrations marking the World Tourism Day.

The ITIC which will be held in London on the 1st and 2nd November 2019 at the InterContinental Park Lane Hotel, will contribute to the theme of the World Tourism Day of this year, Tourism and Jobs: A better future for all’.

This event will give the opportunity to project owners from Africa, Island nations and emerging destinations, to establish fruitful contacts and connect them with investors.

They will be discussing on investments in sustainable tourism that will be beneficial not only to them but also to the local communities through job creation and social inclusion while preserving the environment and enhancing the natural beauty of existing sites.

During these last months, the tourism industry has been confronted to major turbulences. Natural calamities in the Bahamas and in Mozambique, the collapse of one of the world’s oldest tour operators, Thomas Cook, the uncertainties pertaining to the Brexit… However, through the joint efforts of key stakeholders at the forthcoming ITIC, we will strive to achieve a better future. A future that will embrace all in a spirit of social inclusion and a model of development that can promote self-employment among the local community.

We would like to reiterate what our Chairman Dr Taleb Rifai, said “investing in Travel and Tourism goes beyond its significant economic contribution. Investing in tourism, to me is not just an extremely wise and correct business proposition, it is investing in the future of the planet, in the future of mankind”.

For more information, please contact Mr. Ibrahim Ayoub at [email protected] or call him on his mobile / whatsapp +447464034761