Tourism is still a people business. In Alicante, four veterans of the global industry proved that an old rule still travels well.
Earl McPhee of The Bahamas, Azerbaijan’s Abulfas Garayev, Seychelles Ambassador-at-Large Alain St Ange and Seychelles Presidential Special Envoy for ASEAN Nico Barito met again at the Clevenard Open Project 2026 in Alicante, Spain. The event ran from 27 to 30 August and brought together speakers from tourism, business, culture and diplomacy.
Their reunion was more than a warm conference catch-up. Each man has spent decades working across tourism, government, international relations or diplomacy. Once together, the talk soon turned to how their experience and global contacts could again be used for practical cooperation.
“It was great to catch up after so many years. Tourism remains so much the industry built on friendship, and friendship continues to rally friends to work together and support each other,” St.Ange said in Alicante.
That line neatly sums up an industry that can sometimes become buried under statistics. Tourism is measured in arrivals, air seats, hotel nights and visitor spend. Yet much of the real work still depends on trust between people.
Garayev brings deep institutional experience. The former Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism chaired the UNWTO Executive Council in 2017. That was the year of a closely watched election for the organisation’s Secretary-General. UNWTO now uses the public name UN Tourism, but those old international links still matter.
St Ange also returned to formal public service this year. The Seychelles National Assembly approved his appointment as Ambassador-at-Large in March 2026. President Patrick Herminie then presented his instruments of appointment in April. Tourism, air links and international outreach are among the issues tied to his new role.
McPhee spent about 35 years with The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. He retired as Director of International Relations and Sustainable Economic Development before moving into private travel. He later established Let’s Go Travel Bahamas, taking decades of destination knowledge with him.
Barito has long linked Seychelles with Southeast Asia. Seychelles government records identify him as Special Envoy for ASEAN. His role has involved diplomacy, regional cooperation and the interests of a small island nation working across a much larger market.
What came out of Alicante was not a formal new alliance, treaty or another grand tourism body. The industry already has enough acronyms to fill a departure board. Instead, the four agreed to renew contact, support one another and reconnect with people across their wider networks.
That may sound modest, but it matters.
Tourism does not always need a new institution. Sometimes it needs experienced people who know who to call, who to trust and how to turn a conversation into action.
The Clevenard gathering was built around business, culture, creativity and human connection. That made Alicante a fitting place for the reunion.
The broader lesson is clear. Technology, data and investment will shape tourism’s future. So will aviation access, sustainability and changing traveller habits. But the industry still rests on something much older.
Relationships.
In Alicante, four tourism veterans showed that experience does not have to fade when office titles change. Used well, it can become an asset for the next chapter.
People first. The passengers tend to follow.
By: Anne Keam – © 2026.
Read Time: 3 minutes.
Author Bio:
Anne Keam’s story begins in Queensland, on a grain farm in the state’s wide western reaches, where the days were long and the lessons simple: work hard, look after your own, and don’t make a fuss. Those early years left their mark.
She later studied Arts at the University of Queensland, before doing what felt natural at the time, heading back home to the family property. But the world was calling. Anne packed a backpack and went looking, spending years on the road and finding herself most alive in South America. She wrote everything down along the way. Those notebooks, full of dust, colour, and curiosity, eventually became her blog, a quiet, personal record of seeing the world and learning from it.
