FIA chief Todt here for As-Pac Drive Tourism Conference

By Aida Sevilla-Mendoza January 28,2014

As you read this column this morning (Wednesday, Jan. 29), the man who leads the largest mobility consumer network in the world (100 million members of motoring clubs on six continents) is delivering the keynote speech at the Asia-Pacific Drive Tourism Conference in Subic.  At 11 a.m. today, Jean Todt, president of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez will lead the groundbreaking ceremony of the Subic-AAP Children’s Road Safety Park.

 

Only a conference themed as “Saving Lives, Saving Costs, Saving the Planet” in support of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 could have motivated Todt to jet all the way to Manila from Paris, the FIA’s home base. The Drive Tourism Conference at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center starts today and ends on Feb. 2, presented by the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Automobile Association Philippines (AAP) in partnership with the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi).

 

FERRARI F1 DIRECTOR. This is Todt’s second time in our country, the first having been in January 2011 during his first term as FIA president when he visited the office of AAP, the only FIA affiliate in the Philippines, and called on key government officials.  The former Formula One team director of Ferrari when Michael Schumacher won the world driver’s championship seven years in a row, Todt was reelected to head the FIA last month on a platform for progress.  A second four-year term will allow Todt to visit many of the 232 FIA-affiliated national motoring and sporting organizations in 134 countries in his endeavor to find out how the FIA can help spur their growth and effectiveness.

 

During the conference, aside from the DOT’s Jimenez, Todt will get to meet with the tourism and transportation ministers of  Thailand, Cambodia, Palau, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and the FIA-affiliated club presidents of Australia, India and Nepal plus the transport specialists of the United Nations ESCAP and the Asian Development Bank.  A courtesy call on President Benigno S. Aquino III is scheduled. Todt believes that government officials should get involved in promoting road safety by improving road infrastructure, providing driver and pedestrian education and enforcing better traffic regulations.

 

TOURISM SIDE. Since the FIA is more widely known as the governing body of motor sport worldwide including Formula One and the World Rally Championship, you may be wondering what it has to do with tourism.  After the FIA merged with the Alliance Internationale de Tourism in 2005, it expanded its role in mobility and formed the World Council for the Automobile, Mobility and Tourism.  The merger with AIT brought greater strength to the mobility side of the FIA.

 

Absorbing AIT’s member touring clubs, the FIA promotes safe travel, freedom of mobility and encourages sensible, sustainable tourism worldwide aside from governing motor sport.  Many of the FIA’s mobility clubs run travel agencies that provide camping and tourism services. The American Automobile Association (AAA), for example, has the biggest travel agency in the United States.  AAP formed its own travel organization, AAP Travel, in 2011. The  tourism activities of mobility clubs provide a clear opportunity for the FIA to be a source of global and regional information benefiting the clubs and promoting the exchange of successful experiences plus the development of innovative tourism services. Tourism is also another platform for FIA public policy, protecting the rights and safety of club members as they travel abroad.

 

COMMON VALUES. As Todt himself has pointed out, “The FIA is unique in the world as a non-profit, independent association that combines the role of a major sports governing body and the voice of the motoring public.  Both the sporting and mobility sides of the FIA share common values supporting fairness for consumers and competitors, for safety and sustainability on road and track and the right to enjoy the freedom that the automobile can provide.

 

“In a rapidly motoring world, we especially need to strengthen the FIA’s global reach both in its motor sport and mobility roles.  We must reach out to a new generation of motoring and motor sport enthusiasts.  With over 100 million members, the FIA’s mobility clubs are the largest mobility consumer network in the world.  They provide vital assistance and tourism services to their members and also defend the interests of motorists and their freedom of mobility. As the world’s motoring population more than doubles in the decades ahead, the FIA must help its clubs to remain at the forefront of innovative motoring services and effective public policy.”

 

 

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