The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announced that former US president Barack Obama will be a guest of honour and keynote speaker at its Global Summit in Seville, Spain, to be held between April 2 and 4, 2019.
According to the WTTC, Obama is the natural choice as a headline speaker for its 2019 Global Summit, which adopts the theme of "changemakers" to celebrate the people and ideas which are defining the future of the tourism sector.
Gloria Guevara, president and CEO of the WTTC, said the organisation is honoured to be hosting such an important leader as Obama at its global summit this year.
"During his time in office he embodied the notion that Travel & Tourism is a driver of economic growth and creator of jobs," she said.
The 2019 WTTC Global Summit will be hosted by Ayuntamiento of Seville, Turismo Andaluz and Turespaña.
A report released by the WTTC recently, found that the global travel and tourism sector grew at 3.9% to contribute a record $8.8trn and 319 million jobs to the world economy in 2018.
For the eighth consecutive year, this was above the growth rate of world gross domestic product (GDP).