GSTC CEO Randy Durband, as a member of the TOURISE Advisory Board, was present at TOURISE’s inaugural Global Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, held from November 11 to 13, 2025. Where governments, business leaders, investors, tourism professionals, and technology experts gathered to deliver and discuss high-impact initiatives aimed at building a more sustainable, equitable, and future-focused tourism sector.
‘The Agentic Tourism Initiative’ was officially launched on the inaugural day by Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of TOURISE, who introduced the world’s first Agentic Protocol for Tourism as an intelligent AI-powered experience.
“As a member of its Advisory Board, I can state that TOURISE’s inaugural event in Saudi Arabia was just the starting point of this remarkable convening platform, which aims to provide the necessary bridges for stakeholders to take global tourism to new heights of quality to serve the constant growth of demand,” said Mr. Durband.
During the event, Mr. Durband joined the closed ‘Travel & Tourism Leadership Meeting’ hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Saudi Minister al-Khateeb, participating in insightful and productive conversations where critical topics for the sector’s transformation were addressed, including workforce development and authenticity in the visitor experience, among other issues. The need to engage a broader set of players, including companies in the energy, water, infrastructure, finance, and other sectors, was also part of the discussion.
With travel and tourism projected to reach 30 billion trips and $16 trillion in global GDP by 2034, the World Economic Forum’s ‘Principles for Transformative Tourism’ were unveiled, a cross-sector, cross-industry framework to harness travel and tourism’s potential as a net-positive force for people and planet. Following this announcement, the Beyond Tourism: Coordinated Pathways to Inclusive Prosperity was also launched during TOURISE’s event. The GSTC has been acknowledged in the report, along with other industry players, for its contribution to the research underlying this paper.
