From Concept to Global Dialogue: GapEdu Leadership Contributes to the Strategic Development of GTF Brussels 2026
Brussels | 24 August 2026
Through their Executive Board roles at the World Tourism Forum Institute, GapEdu’s leadership is contributing to the strategic development of the Global Tourism Forum Annual Meeting 2026 — from concept and programme architecture to session themes, stakeholder mapping and high-level engagement.
The Global Tourism Forum Annual Meeting 2026, taking place on 9–10 November in Brussels, will bring together policymakers, institutional leaders, investors and senior industry executives around two issues increasingly shaping the future of global tourism: investment and security.
Behind the two-day programme is a strategic development process that begins long before delegates enter the conference room.
It starts with defining the questions that matter, understanding the changing policy and investment environment, identifying the institutions that should be represented, and bringing together leaders whose mandates and expertise can move dialogue towards action.
For GapEdu – Global Consultancy on Development Policy & Practice, the Brussels project represents an opportunity to contribute this expertise at the programme-design level.
Contributing at the Strategic Design Stage
Through their responsibilities on the Executive Board of the World Tourism Forum Institute (WTFI), Hanni Tran, Founder of GapEdu, and Jyrki Nilson, Co-Founder & CEO, are contributing to the strategic development of the Annual Meeting.
Their engagement includes contributions to the concept development and programme architecture, formulation of session themes, stakeholder mapping, and identification and engagement of relevant high-level speakers and institutions.
This work reflects a principle central to GapEdu’s approach to development policy and practice: international dialogue becomes valuable when it is designed around the real challenges facing governments, institutions, investors and industries — and when the right stakeholders are brought into that dialogue.
For Brussels 2026, this has meant looking beyond tourism as a standalone industry.
Instead, the programme places tourism within a much wider ecosystem of investment, infrastructure, mobility, security, sustainability, technology and international cooperation.
Investment and Security: Two Sides of Tourism Competitiveness
The first day of the Annual Meeting will focus on global leadership and investment.
The programme explores where global tourism capital is moving, how destinations can turn development strategies and masterplans into investment-ready projects, and how hospitality investment, blended finance, connectivity and climate resilience can support sustainable destination growth.
The second day shifts the conversation towards security, resilience and trust.
Its sessions examine how tourism competitiveness is increasingly connected to destination security, seamless mobility, cybersecurity, event security and wider resilience.
Together, the two pillars reflect a changing reality for destinations.
Attracting investment is no longer solely about presenting opportunities. Long-term investor and traveller confidence also depends on the quality of institutions, infrastructure, connectivity, resilience and trust surrounding a destination.
The evolving programme and its strategic rationale are further outlined by the World Tourism Forum Institute in its briefing, What to Expect from Annual Meeting 2026: An Agenda for Tourism Investment and Security.
From Session Themes to the Right People in the Room
Designing the themes is only one part of the process.
The next question is equally important:
The Brussels programme is being developed through stakeholder mapping across governments, European institutions, international organisations, development and financial institutions, tourism authorities and the private sector.
Potential contributors are considered not simply according to profile or title, but according to the relevance of their institutional mandate, expertise and ability to contribute meaningfully to each discussion.
This approach informs engagement with senior policymakers, institutional leaders and industry executives working across tourism, transport, investment, hospitality, mobility, security, sustainability and destination development.
It also reflects one of GapEdu’s wider areas of practice: strategic partnerships and investment facilitation — connecting development priorities with institutions, expertise and decision-makers capable of advancing them.
The individual themes and discussions being developed for the Annual Meeting can be explored in WTFI’s Annual Meeting 2026 Brussels: A Session-by-Session Briefing.
Why Brussels Matters
The location gives this work additional significance.
As the institutional centre of the European Union and one of the world’s major centres for diplomacy and international cooperation, Brussels provides a natural environment for positioning tourism within wider policy conversations.
Here, tourism can be considered not simply through arrivals, destinations and hospitality, but through its relationship with economic development, investment, transport, border mobility, sustainability, security and international cooperation.
This perspective closely aligns with GapEdu’s own work at the intersection of development policy and implementation.
Rather than viewing international forums as standalone events, GapEdu sees high-level platforms as opportunities for knowledge exchange, strategic relationship-building and policy-to-practice engagement.
Their value therefore lies not only in who attends, but in whether their architecture enables the right institutions and leaders to engage around clearly defined challenges.
Leadership Through Contribution
GapEdu’s involvement in the Global Tourism Forum Annual Meeting Brussels 2026 illustrates another dimension of the consultancy’s international work: contributing strategic capacity to platforms where development conversations are shaped.
Through their Executive Board responsibilities at WTFI, GapEdu’s leadership is helping develop a dialogue that connects policy, investment, institutions and industry.
The work behind Brussels 2026 — from concept development and thematic design to stakeholder mapping and high-level engagement — also reflects a broader principle behind GapEdu’s approach:
Meaningful international partnerships begin with the right agenda, the right stakeholders and a clear pathway from dialogue to action.
For GapEdu, Brussels 2026 is therefore more than an event on the international calendar.
It is an opportunity to help shape the conversations that need to happen — and to help bring the people capable of advancing those conversations into the same room.