Hereu welcomes World Travel & Tourism Council's choice of Spain as its new international head office

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, during the visit to the new Pepsico plant in Vitoria (Álava)

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the leading organisation representing the global private tourism sector, today announced its decision to relocate its head office from London to Madrid. The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, has welcomed this decision which, in his words, reinforces Spain's position as a tourism power and makes Madrid the world capital of tourism governance, integrating public and private voice.

The decision of WTTC, which represents more than 200 international companies covering all strategic branches of tourism, such as Iberostar, Hilton, Google, Expedia and Hyatt, was made after a process of deliberation between several candidates (including Geneva, Milan, Paris and Dubai) and responds to the need to favour a new tourism model and promote a truly global tourism cluster. Furthermore, as the minister underlined, "today it is possible to confirm this excellent decision, the result of intense joint work and collaboration over the last few months between the Government of Spain, different administrations, as well as the WTTC organisation itself".

Spain is a world reference destination in tourism (in 2024, our country received 94 million international tourists, an all-time high, with 126 billion euros in tourism revenue, 12.3% of national GDP) and one of the leading players in policies to modernise tourism. This success, which combines extraordinary figures and a firm commitment to the sustainable transformation of the tourism industry, has been fundamental, in Hereu's words, for the organisation to finally choose Madrid.

Madrid, global tourism cluster

With WTTC's decision to move its head office from the United Kingdom to Spain, Madrid becomes the global cluster for tourism governance, as the capital has hosted since its creation in 1975 the head office of UN Tourism (formerly the World Tourism Organization), the United Nations agency that is the leading international institution in the field of tourism, which in 2026 will also open new offices next to the Palacio de Congresos on the Paseo de la Castellana.

As the minister pointed out, "if the WTTC wants to be physically present where the future of tourism is decided and where tourism is really an economic engine, Spain is the ideal place".

The new WTTC head office in Madrid will enable the creation of a 'global tourism campus' (an ecosystem that facilitates joint meetings, aligned agendas, shared projects on sustainability, data or training), as well as the opportunity to generate joint projects funded by international organisations and public-private investors to generate new pilot initiatives and knowledge centres around tourism.

Minister Jordi Hereu stressed that decisions of this kind endorse the Government of Spain's "commitment" to "place the tourism industry at the centre of the political agenda" and, for this reason, he recalled the approval of the Spain 2030 Sustainable Tourism Strategy, which responds to this "need to transform the tourism model based on the triple aspect of sustainability: economic, social and environmental".

Visit to PepsiCo plant in Vitoria

Hereu made these statements during his visit to the PepsiCo factory in Etxabarri-Ibiña (Álava), which will become the company's first plant in the world with net zero emissions, thanks to the total electrification of its operations and its commitment to sustainability. To this end, it has made an investment of 5 million euros for electrification, of which 1.7 million euros has been granted by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism under line 1 of the PERTE for Industrial Decarbonisation.

In this sense, the Minister for Industry and Tourism has advanced that the order of bases for the second call of the PERTE for Industrial Decarbonisation will be published soon.

Line 1 of aid under this PERTE is aimed at comprehensive action for decarbonisation, supporting actions carried out by national industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The PERTE for industrial decarbonisation, with a public investment of 3.17 billion euros, will mobilise up to 11.8 billion euros of total investment, increasing productivity by 10%, generating 8,000 jobs and reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere by 13 million tonnes per year.

Hereu also praised the implementation of part of PepsiCo's Global Digital Hub in the local Technology Park and the impact of Artificial Intelligence in the transformation of the company's business model.

With more than 50 years of history, its plant in Etxabarri-Ibiña is one of the largest in the production of the company's beverages in southwest Europe.

Non official translation