FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem introduced the meeting by welcoming the WCAMT members to Cordoba, Andalusia, and thanking the Royal Automobile Club of Spain, Region of Andalusia and City of Cordoba for hosting the event. 

He then commented of the advancements made over the past 18 months in terms of governance. 

“A year and a half ago, we started our transformation agenda. This is a long process but we can be collectively proud of what we have already achieved. We are shaping the future of our organisation together with you, the FIA Members,” he said.

Talking about projects for the future, FIA President insisted on the need to strengthen the Alliance Internationale du Tourisme. “This year will mark the 125th anniversary of the AIT.  We must celebrate and accompany the AIT into the future by adopting a new strategy to revitalise the Alliance and bring it into the digital era,” he declared.

Also opening the meeting, FIA Deputy President for Automobile Mobility and Tourism Tim Shearman reminded the importance of the FIA University in empowering FIA Members by providing them with unique training opportunities. He invited FIA Clubs to join the Senior Executive Programme taking place in New York City from 16-18 October 2023 and the Emerging Leaders Programme taking place in Madrid from 2-6 October 2023.

During the meeting, WCAMT members were given preliminary insights on the Youth Market Research. Carried out in 9 markets around the world ­– Germany, USA, Australia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, and China – the research looks at the youth aspirations in terms of mobility choices.

In Membership Services, a progress report on the FIA-led One Road programme was presented to the World Council. One Road aims to harness the collective power of FIA Mobility Clubs to create a global rewards programme that offers high-value benefits to their members and create new revenue streams for Clubs. WCAMT members heard about the programme’s roll out in Europe and preparations for the expansion to other regions of the world. 

Another highlight of the meeting was an update on tourism services and more particularly on the improved digital promotion of the Carnets de Passages en Douane (CPDs) and International Driving Permits with the respective websites: https://internationaldrivingpermit.org and https://carnetdepassage.org

The strong market demand for CPDs was underlined as in just the first six months of this year, CPD sales revenues are already at 82% of the total sales revenues for all of 2022.  Potential developments including increased digitalisation were also discussed. 

Finally, two new members of the FIA Policy Commission were nominated: Monica Berg from the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC – Germany) and Anders Ydstedt from the Kungliga Automobil Klubben (KAK – Sweden).