WTTC appoints Esteban Velásquez as Executive Vice President for Business Development and Membership
The World Travel & Tourism Council, a global association bringing together leading private-sector companies in tourism, has appointed Esteban Velásquez to the position of Executive Vice President for Business Development and Membership. In practice, this position is not merely a personnel change at the top of the organisation, but also a signal of the direction WTTC intends to take in a period of intensified international positioning, membership expansion, and stronger influence in discussions about the future of travel and tourism. According to WTTC’s announcement and related information published in early April 2026, Velásquez is expected to lead global growth initiatives, further strengthen the value the organisation offers to its members, and expand the Council’s strategic reach in the international tourism industry.
The appointment comes at a time when WTTC is seeking to consolidate its role as the key private voice in global tourism. On its official website, the organisation states that it represents more than 200 chairs, presidents, and chief executives of leading tourism and travel companies from different segments of the industry, ranging from hotel groups and airlines to cruise companies, technology firms, and tour operators. In such a system, the function responsible for business development and membership is not an administrative formality, but one of the levers through which WTTC builds real political and market influence, especially at a time when the industry is adapting to geopolitical, regulatory, and investment changes.
Why this role matters for international tourism
At first glance, news about the appointment of an Executive Vice President for Business Development and Membership may seem like a topic that mainly interests sector insiders. However, in WTTC’s case, this is an organisation whose positions and analyses are often used as a reference point in discussions about air transport, visa regimes, investments, sustainability, employment, and the recovery of tourism markets. When such an organisation changes or strengthens the team managing member relations and expansion strategy, this indirectly affects which topics will be more strongly represented before governments, international institutions, and regulators.
In recent months, WTTC has presented itself not only as a networking platform, but also as an organisation that wants to provide more concrete advocacy and analytical value to its members. In January of this year, upon Gloria Guevara’s return as President and Chief Executive Officer, WTTC announced that it was entering 2026 with renewed momentum, a clearer global strategy, and an emphasis on strengthening membership, deeper engagement with members, and stronger influence in public policy. That announcement also stated that the organisation wants to expand membership with a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, but also on high-value companies and partners, which further explains why appointing a person specifically responsible for membership development is operationally and politically important.
According to available information, Velásquez will take on the task of turning that direction into measurable growth. This means attracting new members, retaining existing ones, strengthening the partner network, and designing an offering that will make leading industry players see WTTC membership as a concrete benefit, not merely a reputational label. In global tourism, where the sector consists of both corporate giants and a strong layer of medium-sized and smaller businesses, precisely this ability to connect the interests of different players becomes crucial.
WTTC is building a new phase of development
The context of the appointment is additionally important because WTTC is simultaneously implementing several strategic changes. At the end of 2025, the organisation announced that its new global office would be located in Madrid, after the Executive Committee unanimously supported that decision. The explanation stated that Madrid offers a more competitive business environment, more favourable operating conditions, better access to international institutions, a broader talent pool, and stronger connectivity with global markets. WTTC particularly stressed that the new location should enable deeper engagement with members and stronger advocacy for the sector’s interests.
Such a relocation is not merely a logistical issue. Madrid is increasingly emerging as one of the important centres of international tourism policy, especially because of its proximity to relevant organisations, its links with the Spanish and European tourism markets, and Spain’s growing role in global discussions on sustainability and destination management. If WTTC wants to be more present in institutional debates while also being closer to members from Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, then strengthening the business development team also fits into that broader organisational redesign.
In that sense, the appointment of Esteban Velásquez can be read as part of an attempt to turn ambitious organisational announcements into operational reality. An organisation that publicly speaks about renewed momentum, stronger research capacity, membership expansion, and deeper cooperation with governments must simultaneously have people who can implement that model on the ground, in conversations with companies, investors, partners, and institutional stakeholders. That is precisely why a staffing decision like this carries more weight than a mere functional change in the organisational chart.
Industry experience as a key advantage
The appointment announcement states that Velásquez has more than 25 years of experience. This is an important detail because WTTC does not seek for roles like this merely a manager who knows how to sell membership, but a person who understands how the entire tourism value chain works: from travel distribution and sales to relations with destinations, carriers, technological systems, and end users. In an industry that is highly international, yet at the same time deeply dependent on regulatory rules and geopolitical stability, experience is measured not only in years of work, but also in the ability to connect different markets and business models.
For WTTC, it is particularly important that the person in this role understands how members’ interests differ. Hotel groups, global distribution systems, cruise companies, airlines, investors in destination projects, and technology firms do not expect the same type of benefit from membership. Some seek political influence, others access to research, others a platform for visibility, and still others partnerships and entry into new markets. The job of the Executive Vice President for Business Development and Membership is therefore, in essence, the job of strategically translating the interests of different branches of the industry into a common institutional framework.
It is precisely at this point that the question of what Velásquez’s approach will be also arises. According to available information, his mandate should include strengthening value for members, which suggests that the focus will not be solely on increasing the number of members, but also on redefining what WTTC membership concretely means. This may include better membership segmentation, more active work with partners, a greater number of thematic initiatives, and a stronger connection between WTTC’s research work and the business priorities of the companies that support it financially and reputationally.
What WTTC is currently signalling to the market
WTTC’s official announcements in the first months of 2026 show that the organisation is trying to act more offensively and visibly than in part of the previous period. Alongside Gloria Guevara’s return to lead the organisation, WTTC stressed that it wants to renew its global relevance, expand its membership base, intensify individual engagement with members, and retain a leading role in research and public policy advocacy. In the announcement about the new global office in Madrid, it was stated that the organisation should become more agile, more efficient, and even more strongly focused on value for members. On WTTC’s homepage, it is additionally highlighted that the organisation brings together more than 200 leading industry figures, but also that through the Together in Travel platform it wants to more strongly include small and medium-sized enterprises, which it states make up around 80 per cent of the global travel community.
Such messages are important because they show how WTTC is trying to reconcile two levels of action. On the one hand, it wants to remain a club of the most influential global players in the private tourism sector. On the other hand, it must show that it understands that the future of the industry does not depend only on large companies, but also on small and medium-sized enterprises, technological innovators, regional partners, and new forms of tourism offering. It is precisely within that range, from an elite business forum to a broader platform for influence, that the logic of appointing a person who is meant to build membership and business development is found.
For the wider industry, this is a signal that WTTC does not want to remain merely a commentator on trends, but also an active organiser of private-sector interests. This could have consequences for the way topics such as investment, cross-border mobility, digitalisation, labour, sustainability standards, and destination resilience will be addressed in the coming months. In practice, the strength of such an organisation depends on how broad and representative a group of members it can bring together, but also on how precisely it can articulate their shared interests before public institutions.
The timing of the appointment is no coincidence
Velásquez is taking office ahead of a period in which WTTC will have several important visibility points. Among them is Global Summit 2026, which will be held in Valletta, Malta. WTTC previously announced that the summit would bring together influential representatives of the public and private sectors to discuss innovation, resilience, sustainability, and the long-term growth of tourism. The organisation also stated that the event would serve as a platform for forging partnerships and encouraging sustainable investment.
It is precisely ahead of such international gatherings that strengthening business development and membership gains additional importance. Summits of this kind are not merely conferences, but places where an organisation’s real reach is measured: who comes, who participates, who wants to be a partner, who joins as a member, and who sees WTTC as a forum through which it can shape global debates. The person leading membership therefore works not only on long-term relationships, but also on the immediate political-business architecture of the events and partnerships that arise from them.
In WTTC’s announcements, Malta has been presented as the host of a three-day gathering that should further strengthen the discussion on the future of the sector. The organisation also stressed that details on dates, the programme, speakers, and registration would be announced during 2026. This means that the months ahead will be a period of intensive work on partnerships, member relations, and corporate involvement, so the new appointment can also be seen as preparation for that operationally demanding cycle.
Broader consequences for members and partners
For WTTC’s existing members, this staffing decision could mean more than a symbolic change at the top. If the organisation truly moves towards deeper individual engagement, as announced, members could expect more tailored models of cooperation, more thematic initiatives, and clearer links between membership, research, and advocacy activities. For potential new members, especially companies that have so far not been part of WTTC or have over time drifted away from the organisation, the appointment of Velásquez may be a message that a new phase is opening, marked by a more active approach and a redefinition of membership value.
This is also important because of competition among international industry platforms. Global tourism today is not only a matter of traveller movement, but also a space in which different organisations, associations, consultancies, technological systems, and international institutions compete for influence over data, standards, and policy recommendations. In such an environment, membership in influential forums must bring visible business benefits. WTTC therefore cannot rely only on tradition and reputation, but also on the ability to respond in real time to the needs of an industry that is changing rapidly.
If Velásquez succeeds in connecting large global companies with new membership segments while also strengthening the sense of practical benefit, WTTC could further consolidate its position at a time when tourism is simultaneously recording growth and facing new risks. If, however, the organisation remains at the level of declarations about renewed momentum without tangible results for members, appointments like this could easily remain merely part of a PR narrative. That is precisely why the real impact of this decision will become visible only through the number of new members, the quality of partnerships, and the level of influence WTTC demonstrates during 2026.
For now, it is clear that WTTC is trying with this decision to send a message of stability, ambition, and operational readiness. At a time when the organisation is reorganising, relocating its global office, preparing a major summit, and at the same time seeking to expand its membership base, the appointment of Esteban Velásquez appears to be a move designed to ensure that strategic announcements also gain the executive strength needed for implementation.
Sources:- World Travel & Tourism Council – WTTC official website with information on the organisation’s role, membership, and current priorities (link)- World Travel & Tourism Council – announcement about Gloria Guevara’s return as President and Chief Executive Officer and plans for membership expansion and the 2026 summit in Malta (link)- World Travel & Tourism Council – announcement about the choice of Madrid for the new global office and the reasons for the strategic relocation (link)- World Travel & Tourism Council – announcement about Valletta hosting the WTTC Global Summit 2026 in Malta (link)- eTurboNews – news about the appointment of Esteban Velásquez to the position of Executive Vice President for Business Development and Membership at WTTC (link)
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