Ms. GLORIA GUEVARA MANZO is Chief Special Advisor Ministry of Tourism Saudi Arabia
Gloria Guevara is a highly-experienced and well-connected global stateswoman who joined the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia as Chief Special Advisor to the Minister in May 2021. Her role is to support the impressive transformation taking place as part of the Kingdom’s 2030 vision, and drive sustainable tourism both in Saudi Arabia & globally.
Prior to joining the Ministry, Gloria led the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) as President and CEO, having joined in 2017. WTTC represents the global travel & tourism private sector worldwide, a sector that generates 10% of GDP and accounts for 300 million jobs globally.
Gloria was the global voice for the sector and, under her leadership, WTTC led the industry’s agenda during the most difficult crisis in history, the Covid19 pandemic. WTTC successfully unified the sector and implemented measures to reduce the impact such as the creation of the “Safe Travels” global protocols and a stamp that were granted to more than 400 destinations around the world. WTTC also pursued active engagement with over 150 governments to share best practices and public policies to support workers and the private sector, including millions of SMEs, in addition to providing guidelines from lessons learned to help the strong recovery.
While at WTTC, Gloria also achieved important milestones, including defining the climate and environmental agenda for WTTC and its members in partnership with UNFCC, UNEP and HSPH. She successfully hosted important events such as the first “global environment and climate action forum”, “Regional leaders’ forums” and WTTC global summits, where she welcomed former Presidents Obama, Calderon, Santos, Aznar and heads of state such as Sanchez, Macri and several other world leaders to support the sector. Before her departure as CEO, WTTC hosted the first global international event during the pandemic, the WTTC Global Summit in Cancun Mexico, demonstrating that international travel could be reopened in a safe way.
Gloria’s career in the travel industry started in 1995 at the Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Holdings, she was later CEO of JV Sabre Mexico reporting to a board of directors from Aeromexico, Mexicana, and Sabre.
In March 2010, President Calderon appointed her as Minister of Tourism for Mexico, where she also oversaw the Mexican Tourism Board. Under her leadership the “National Agreement for Tourism” in Mexico was created in 2011 and for the first time “the importance of Travel & Tourism” was included in the G20 declaration of leaders in Los Cabos.
Gloria received the Good Neighbour Award from the US-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and Virtuoso awarded Mexico the best tourism board in the world thanks to her successful branding and repositioning efforts. She was recognized with multiple awards from the academic world and the private sector. She was also recognized as one of the most influential women in Mexico by CNN, Forbes and Expansion
In addition, Gloria was Special Advisor on Government Affairs to Harvard University’s School of Public Health, and was part of the Future of Travel & Tourism Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Gloria holds a BS in Computer Science from Anahuac University and MBA from Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern University.
Gloria was also formerly on the boards of companies including HSBC Mexico and Playa Hotels & Resorts.