An international tourism organization represented in 84 countries has launched a chapter in P.E.I.
“It’s basically tourism professionals doing business with one another, and the ability to interact with peers in the country and around the world,” said Jim Martell, acting president of Skal International’s P.E.I. club.
The P.E.I. club received its charter at an event on Jan. 10 at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown.
The first Skal Club was founded in 1932 in Paris. Skal International was founded two years later. In the 84 countries it represents, there are about 400 clubs and 15,000 members. The organization’s headquarters are located in Torremolinos, Spain.
Martell explained the organization’s role it to connect with everything connected with tourism, such as bus tours, car rental agencies, airports, travel agents, hotel operators and food and beverage services.
But the value of Skal is that it offers an international networking opportunity in these areas for the tourism industry.
The Tourism Industry Association of Prince Edward Island (TIAPEI) has more of a local or provincial focus in these areas, he explained.
Even though the organizations have a different focus, they share members, including Martell, who is a member of TIAPEI as well as the Hotel Association of P.E.I. and Meetings and Conventions P.E.I. Vice versa, some members of TIAPEI and other organizations, such as the Culinary Institute of Canada, are members of Skal, he said.
“We’ve got a real good mix of participants so far, and we can only look forward to driving that further and expanding a little bit,” he said.
P.E.I. was the last province in Canada to have a Skal club. The P.E.I. club currently has 17 members, and is looking to add more.
Martell said the plan moving forward is to form an executive before the club’s meeting in February. And then in October, the P.E.I. club is hosing a national board meeting with around 25 Skal members from every club in Canada attending.
Similarly, Martell, who is also the general manager of the Loyalist Lakeview Resort and Conference Centre in Summerside, will have the opportunity to visit and attend Skal meetings in other countries and promote the Island.
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