IPBN Tourism Conference: Panel 3 Speakers and Closing Statements

Things are heating up for Thursday

The third panel of the upcoming IPBN Tourism Conference at the Universidade Europeia will focus squarely on diversity and the emerging trends in Portugal’s tourism sector. Three guest speakers will each have the floor for a 15-minute presentation, each introduced by Arnold Delville, General Manager of the IPBN. 

Catarina Romão Gonçalves, the new Deputy Director General of the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage (DGPC) as of September 1 of this year, will give an overview of her understanding of the cultural market, driven by her experience in managing 26 museums, palaces, and monuments and her work in coordinating the Portuguese Museums Network. Armed with a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and a master's degree in Theater and Education, Catarina’s insights will be bolstered by her work at the DGPC alongside her background as a certified trainer, actress, author, director, and lyricist.

Nuno Alexandre, Group Relationship Manager of the HPA Group will then address the new concept of Medical Tourism. According to VisitPortugal, “For many people, Portuguese healthcare offers an excellent value-for-money alternative where the medical and rehabilitation care, kindness, climate, direct contact with nature and Portuguese hospitality make for a rewarding experience.” This springs from the fact that Portugal has a top-quality competitive healthcare system with state-of-the-art equipment and technological solutions and a modern hospital network, staffed by highly qualified professionals. Reliable diagnosis, therapy, care, and skills of local health technicians is just the beginning. 

Lastly, Joana Glória, CEO and Founder of the Lagos Digital Nomads group will then discuss tourism from the digital nomads arena, and will introduce her newest project-inside-a-project called “Workation” and how companies and startups can join the program to expand current digital nomad tourism opportunities into business tourism opportunities. Joana will also present her findings on how meet-ups have helped tourists decide to make inquiries about remaining in the country on a semi-permanent bases, for starters. 

The IPBN is also looking forward to hearing the closing statement from the Rector of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Tecnologia at the Universidade Europeia (UE), Hélia Gonçalves Pereira, about UE Tourism courses, the current talent shortage, what is being done to address it, what the skills of the future look like, and how to use productivity and efficiency to lead to higher revenue.

Many thanks to IPBN conference partners at the Turismo de Portugal and Visit Portugal Ireland, and of course, the host of the conference, the Universidade Europeia (UE). We are excited to see all who registered on Thursday, September 29 from 9h to 13h at the Campus da Quinta do Bom Nome inside the UE, when we hold the conference thanks to the above support and that of our official media partner TNews, a digital media outlet covering tourism for professionals.