Tourism authorities from Central America and the Dominican Republic, together with the Central American Tourism Promotion Agency (CATA), were prominent participants in the 13th edition of Wings of Change Americas (WOCA), an iconic event of the industry in the region.
WOCA serves as a platform for dialogue between the airline industry, governments, the tourism sector and other stakeholders in the air transport value chain. On this occasion, the alliance between IATA and the United Nations Tourism Agency (UN Tourism) was a highlight, attracting a wide participation of government representatives from Latin America.
Under the central theme "Advancing aviation for a competitive and sustainable future", the agenda included discussions on global perspectives for aviation, collaboration between governments and the private sector to promote tourism and sustainability, among other relevant topics.
During the event, the experiences of countries such as the Dominican Republic, which has emerged as a leading destination in the Caribbean, were highlighted, presented by the Vice Minister of Tourism, Carlos Peguero. Likewise, the Minister of Tourism of Panama, Denisse Guillén, highlighted the role of her country as an important air hub on the continent, with the capacity to attract travelers from all over the world.
Guatemala's Minister of Tourism, Harris Witbeck, addressed the need to make the region more competitive globally, emphasizing the potential of multi-destination tourism and complementarity between Central American countries.
In another instance, Boris Iraheta, general secretary of CATA, participated with representatives of airlines such as AraJet from the Dominican Republic and Flybondi from Argentina, discussing the immediate opportunities for the airline industry in the post-pandemic. In the dialogue, he highlighted the efforts made to stimulate intraregional tourism with the expansion of low-cost airlines that operate in the region.
Central America had an outstanding exhibition space during WOCA 2024, where the regional tourism offer was exhibited to participants from all over the world. During the forum reception, Boris Iraheta shared with other leaders, including Peter Cerdá, IATA Vice President for Latin America; Gustavo Santos, Regional Director for Latin America of the UNWTO; Harris Witbeck, Minister of Tourism of Guatemala; Carlo Peguero, Vice Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic; and Mauricio Peñate, Ambassador of El Salvador in Chile.