ABTA Convention gets underway
ABTA Convention Special: The 50th ABTA Convention gets underway today in Palma, Mallorca.
This year´s convention – its fourth time in the Balaeric city – has attracted just over 2,000 delegates. It kicks off this evening with the Welcome Party, which is being held in a “sensitively created Spanish village” just outside Palma.
The convention is held in Palma every ten years. ABTA president, John Harding said the island was a particularly appropriate spot for the event as it remains the top destination for UK holidaymakers and “understands the demands of tourism and the requirements of the tourist”. Last year 14 million UK tourists visited the island according to German Porras Olalla, general secretary of tourism at the Spanish Ministry for Economics.
ABTA has teamed up with Climate Care again this year. The aim of the partnership is to offset the global warming emissions from delegates´flights and stay in Palma, making the event “climate neutral”. The scheme works by putting money into Climate Care´s CO2 offset projects, including a project in Bangladesh which educates people in rural areas about using more efficient cooking stoves, or a project in Sputh Africa encouraging the use of low energy lamps.
TravelMole´s managing editor, Ginny McGrath, is at this year´s event, and will bring you the latest news from the convention.
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