Skal International president to visit Philippines

CEBU, Philippines - To advocate global tourism and solidarity, the first lady of tourism Hulya Aslantas (in photo), the world president of Skal International is visiting the Philippines this month to collaborate with local industry stakeholders and discuss topics of common interest.

Skal International is a professional organization of tourism leaders around the world and is the only international group uniting all branches of the travel and tourism industry—hotels, airlines, travel media, shipping, theme parks, car rentals, hospitality academe and national tourism offices.

The organization, formed in 1934, is considered to be the world’s biggest association of tourism and travel in 90 countries and almost 500 locations in the world.

Before her election as president of Skal International at the 69th Skal World Congress held in Taipei in 2008, Hulya Aslantas was the managing director of Turkey-based Universal Travel Services and served as the vice president of Skal International.

Aslantas will be in the Philippines from September 3 to 7, and will meet the country’s tourism industry stakeholders led by Secretary Joseph “Ace” Durano.

She is also going to visit Cebu on September 6 to also meet and collaborate with local industry stakeholders thru Skal International Cebu regarding tourism-related programs.

The first lady of tourism will visit the Philippines through the invitation of Charles Lim, the president of Skal International-Cebu Chapter.

Skal International is an affiliate member of the World Tourism Organization Business Council, one of whose missions is to promote ethics in business, particularly the Global Code of Ethics issued by the World Tourism Organization, which covers peace, the environment, security, pollution, human contacts and respect for local cultures.

Skal International is also a member of the task force on the prevention of sexual exploitation of children in tourism and is one of the sponsors of the Code of Conduct drawn up as a result of this task force.

“I believe that Skal and all the Skal members have a duty to ensure the sustainability of tourism, of our profession. Being from so many different companies, yet we speak the same language of tourism; all together, we can create this cultural exchange between all these different people from different parts of the world so people will then start knowing each other better. Every Skalleague is an ambassador of peace to make this happen,” said Hulya Aslantas in one of her interviews.