Profile

Alessandra Priante

President
Italian National Tourist Board

Alessandra is an Economist with extensive international and diplomatic experience, she served as Director for Europe at the United Nations Agency for Tourism (UN Tourism), being the first woman and first Italian in the agency's history to hold such a prestigious position. In this role, she managed the agency's most significant region, comprising 43 Member States representing 51% of the global tourism market. During her tenure, she enhanced Member States' satisfaction by introducing dynamic and effective projects and work methods, engaging the global private sector significantly, thus contributing to increased financial contributions to the agency. Alessandra also adeptly managed the pandemic period - the most severe crisis for the global tourism sector - spearheading impactful initiatives such as the Global Tourism Crisis Committee and various global technical committees, positioning UN Tourism at the heart of European and global institutions. During this productive professional period, she positioned Italy at the center of global initiatives, from the global communication campaign for tourism recovery (#RestartTourism) launched on July 1, 2020, in Rome, to the organization of the first World Summit of Youth on Sustainable Tourism in Sorrento. She is a graduate of Bocconi University in Business Economics, with two Master degrees including an executive MBA from Luiss Guido Carli University, fluent in six foreign languages (bilingual in Italian and English) and with a great passion for the public sector, she resumed the reins of the national tourism policy in 2015 after an exceptional five-year diplomatic mission in the Persian Gulf as a special envoy of the Government. The diplomatic project, that she herself conceived, aimed at promoting Italy's cultural and educational heritage in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain. The mission stemmed from Alessandra's excellent results achieved in the early 2000s in the field of cultural heritage and audiovisuals, where she served as head of studies and international relations. Upon her return, she quickly restored Italy to a central position in key international platforms, from UNWTO (World Tourism Organization) to OECD, Europe, and the BlueMed, Eusair, and Eusalp strategies. As an expert in policy, particularly in economic and financial analysis, Alessandra coordinated the construction of a robust national database and contributed to the drafting of the national strategic plan 2017-2020, governance reforms, and the challenging transition of tourism from culture vs. agriculture in 2018. In addition to this demanding role with the government in 2018-2019, she served as head of international relations and protocol at MiPAAFT. Author of numerous publications, she has taught at various Italian universities and is currently an associate professor at Luiss Business School and a Research fellow at the Corporate Strategy Research Center at Luiss Guido Carli University. She is passionate about music, cinema (also a member of the European Film Academy), art, and good cuisine. She loves her work, reading, traveling, her family, friends, and AS Roma!