At the Global Tourism Forum Annual Meeting, a candid conversation between Shaikha Al Nowais, Secretary-General Elect, UN Tourism, and Hala Matar Choufany, President, HVS Middle East, Africa & South Asia, traded the usual policy talking points for something rarer on a big stage: a heart-to-heart about leadership, responsibility, and the people behind the titles.
One of the session’s most concrete leadership lessons arrived through memory. During the pandemic, Rotana—the family-founded hospitality group where Al Nowais served—faced the same existential shock as the rest of the industry. Rather than surrender talent, the company redeployed more than a thousand team members into resilient sectors like healthcare, logistics, supermarkets, and call centres (including the “AVA” centre), prioritising multilingual staff and close training. Many of those employees were rehired post-crisis.
The outcome, she said, was more than payroll relief for hotel owners: it reinforced trust, proved the company’s commitment to its people, and strengthened the organisation for the recovery.
Al Nowais’s recent work tour has spanned so many countries she’s “lost count,” but one visit stood out: a cultural festival in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 26 regional performances. The talent on display sparked a policy instinct—how to better fund, guide, and commercialise artisanship so that culture-bearers can convert skill into sustainable livelihoods. It’s a microcosm of her broader agenda: tourism that empowers communities, protects heritage, and unlocks opportunity.
Travel and constant transitions demand resilience. For Al Nowais, the daily non-negotiable is exercise—the only truly solitary time she guards, phone on aeroplane mode. “Well-being is very important… especially with the travel,” she said, noting how mental health has become a formal pillar of post-COVID travel and destination development.
The moment captured the session’s theme: the diplomacy of genuine human encounters. “The people you meet—the impact they have on you—is what lasts,” she said.
Choufany’s final word echoed the room’s sentiment: gratitude for a leader willing to show both strategy and soul. The sector’s future, they agreed, will be built as much on respect, empathy, and wellbeing as on investment and infrastructure—and led by women and youth equipped not only with skills but also with a sense of purpose.