More than 500 business and entrepreneurial leaders from the 23 provinces and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires congregated for the tenth consecutive year to celebrate the traditional International Forum of City, Commerce and Tourism that we carry out from the Argentine Confederation of the Medium Enterprises (CAME). Focusing “The future of SMEs in a context of technological adaptation and social change”, the federal meeting that we organized since 2002, is the most important activity in the country that brings together the commercial sector and tourist entrepreneurs to analyze success cases based on its main axes on innovation, growth, sustainability and proliferation of possibilities for urban tourism of the 21st century.

Its objective is to generate a space for debate, awareness, dissemination of experiences and the contribution of knowledge necessary to induce a better insertion of the activities of the tourism and trade sectors in regional economies, actions that can not contribute to a greater generation of wealth, employment and integration. The meeting had the sponsorship of the Tourism Entity of the City of Buenos Aires, the Federal Tourism Council, the Federation of Tourism Chambers of the Argentine Republic (Fedecatur), Skal, the Commercial Insurance Institute, the Social Work of Entrepreneurs, Professionals and Monotributistas (OSDEPYM), and of the Argentine Federation of Associations of Travel and Tourism Companies (FAEVYT).

In its 2019 edition, the Forum was divided into two days that took place in the Came Auditorium Hall. There, through strategies, instruments, plans and projects the attendees took note of the management keys for small and medium tourist and commercial companies according to the vision of some of the most prestigious and inspiring referents of the local ecosystem.

The protocol ceremony was headed by the president of Came, Gerardo Díaz Beltrán, and had the outstanding presence of the head of government of the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta; the Secretary of Government of Tourism of the Nation, Gustavo Santos; the secretary general of Came, José A. Bereciartúa; the president of the Federation of Tourism Chambers of the Argentine Republic (Fedecatur), Héctor Viñuals Santafé; the president of the Argentine Federation of Associations of Travel and Tourism Companies (FAEVYT), Gustavo Hani; The Secretary of Tourism of Came, Gregorio Wemerchow, and the vice president of the commercial sector, Fabián Tarrío.

There, Díaz Beltrán said: “This forum causes us joy and motivation. We take care of and concern about the juncture, but we have the vision and possibility of seeing not only the urgent but the important thing, and what we are doing today is very important. Tourism and commerce are a perfect synergy and must be part of the medulla constants that require us to modify the vision and propose missions.

In turn, he added: "Tourism generates roots, tradition, regional development", and in that sense, he pointed out: "In Argentina there are very dissimilar regions and we must identify their potentialities. We are convinced that we must work to boost them and tourism will be the great tool to protect and enlarge them."

For his part, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta thanked Came for the invitation, remarked how this meeting exalts society between commerce and tourism and explained the positive impact of the development of these activities in each neighborhood of CABA. "Tourism generates 3 % of the GDP of the city and we are working to double it. For the first time in CABA we will exceed 3 million foreign tourists. We have a lot of cultural, geographical, architectural and gastronomic diversity to continue promoting the sector." Regarding commercial development and the fight against the eradication of illegal sale, Larreta said: "We want to value 20 shopping centers. Today there are no more areas taken in the city and we have the enormous commitment that they never exist again."

In his words of welcome, José A. Bereciartúa, who was accompanied by Héctor Viñuals Santafé, and the vice president of Came Tourism, Fabricio Di Giambattista, said: “During these two days we will be talking about generating genuine work and wealth in Argentina. Tourism and trade have the most sacred power of a country, which is to be the great employment generators”.

In turn, the Secretary of Government of Tourism of the Nation, Gustavo Santos, deepened about the situation of world tourism and the prospects for Argentina in this regard. "Tourism generates more than one million jobs and 1 in 6 future jobs in the world will directly or indirectly generate tourism. Tourism activity is a productive factor that has managed to generate development and sustainability, and that is what we must boost the entire planet. Argentina is a reservoir of nature and that is to be guaranteed the success of tourist activity in our country towards the future," Santos said. He also highlighted the growth that tourism had in recent times: "Argentina is the country of the West that grew most in receptive tourism during the first half of 2019. We are the fourth export complex of Argentina."

At the end, Gregorio Wemerchow, Secretary of Tourism of Came, stressed the work of Santos in the exponential growth of tourism activity in the country: "Gustavo Santos changed the history of tourism in Argentina, transforming it into state policy."

The person in charge of giving the initial kick of the first day was the neurologist and neuroscientist, Facundo Manes, who under the moderation of the secretary general of Came provided an interesting conference where he spoke about the revolution of knowledge as the engine of the Argentine project and made a unique analysis of the reality of our country.

"The collective dream is knowledge: generating wealth for 50 million Argentines. Linking development in science and technology to the productive sector is the great challenge. We must think big again and discuss how we generate wealth, and wealth today is knowledge. A brain attentive to the present makes us more productive and happy. We need an educated and nourished people that allows us to think a country project and forge an epic."

In the second conference "Towards Smart Cities", moderated by Fabián Tarrío, deepened how new technologies are fundamental for urban trade and the cities in which it develops. It was in charge of Alejandro Prince, Doctor of Political Science and Economics, Director of Prince Consulting and the Recia Advisory Council; Gonzalo La Rosa, Executive Director of the Cities of the Future (Argentina) and coordinator of the Diploma at Smart Cities of the Universidad Austral (Argentina); and Nora Larrosa, consultant and technique in environmental management and sustainability solutions, executive director of Sustainable Project and Consultant in the National Program for the Development of Projects and Sustainable Urban Advice on CCA DE CAME.

In the same space, the cases of San Salvador de Jujuy and Concepción (Tucumán) were analyzed, at the hands of the Concepcionense Mayor, Roberto Sánchez; of the President of the Union of Entrepreneurs of Jujuy, Luis Alberto Alonso, and the President of the South Commercial Defense Center, Julio Delgado.

"The woman in tourism. Value what we are" was the first theme of the 3rd Conference moderated by the president of Mecame, Beatriz Tourn. There, Magdalena Choque Vilca, native of La Quiaca, Jujuy, and descendant of a chief, told us everything he learned from the earth with a worldview based on the values ​​of megadiversity and reciprocity. Then, Lic. Patricia Molina spoke in the same framework on the new role of women in the leadership of the tourism sector.

The second day of the meeting began with the 4th Conference "Tourist Intelligence System of the City of Buenos Aires" by the hand of Federico Esper, General Director of Market Intelligence and Observatory and the Tourism Entity of CABA, who told us the importance of the "Big Data" as a key tool for the analysis of tourist flows. He also participated in the Héctor Viñuals space, who reported that Fedecatur raises structural reforms with public-private work to be more competitive and improve the profitability of the sector; and Gustavo Hani, who made important ads such as that from Faevyt they will begin to encourage responsible tourism with the community and the environment and add women to the Board of Directors.

"The tourist impact on Argentina" was the axis of the 5th Conference held by José María Arrúa, Minister of Tourism of Misiones; Federico Posadas, Minister of Culture and Tourism of Jujuy; Gabriela Testa, president of the tourism entity Mendoza and Daniel García, Secretary of Tourism of Río Negro. Provincial officials made special emphasis on their territorial potentials, in the importance of connectivity for the impulse of destinations and what is necessary to promote tourism throughout the geography of their provinces. The panel was moderated by the Secretary of Tourism Development and Promotion of the Nation, Alejandro Lastra.

The last conference of the day, moderated by Bernardo Racedo Aragón, advisor to Came Tourism, and Oscar Antonione, director of the Came's retail trade strengthening program, addressed the technological incorporation in open shopping centers. There, David Alameda, Commerce Manager and Markets of the City of Santander (Spain) shared with those present the importance of online sales channels, digital promotions and the success case of its locality with accessibility to commercial areas and commercial urbanism, training, promotion and commercial impulse and technological modernization.

Finally, Martín Trubycz, president of Pymetic and Teipesa, and Diego Noriega, advisor to Pymetic, made the presentation and launch of Came store, Came Pagos and Came Shipping, three technological tools that the entity is incorporated to boost and facilitate commercial activity.

With the Colado Auditorium, Gregorio Wemerchow and Fabián Tarrío, along with members of the Commerce and Tourism teams, representatives of both sectors in the interior of the country and Came collaborators, they closed this imposing meeting: “This is Came, seeing all these people staying until the end, to the present president, it is a great emotion. We are happy and we hope to see them again next year,” generalized from all over the public. The day was crowned with stay raffles in different parts of the country for both the accredited and for the winner of the #Forocame Twitter contest.