ABOUT

Journalist, writer, speaker, and analyst of trends and new concepts in tourism. Hotel critic in EL PAÍS, the most widely circulated Spanish-language newspapers, since 1987. Founder and promoter trademark Hoteles con Encanto, the Spanish boutique hotels network. Founder and CEO of Notodohoteles.com, a pioneer website about hotels in the whole Europe. A regular speaker at hotel and tourism meetings in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. In 39 years of practice, he has visited more than 26,000 hotels worldwide.

He has been visiting professor in forums and universities in several countries including Andorra (Government of Andorra), Greece (Directive XXIII of the European Union in Athens), Italy (International Congress of Thermal Tourism Naples-Istria), Chile (DuocUC-Valparaiso) and Spain (Universidad de Verano Menéndez Pelayo – Santander, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Universidade da Coruña, Universidad de Oviedo, Universidad de Cádiz, ESDEN Business School Madrid, Escuela Superior de Hostelería Artxanda, Escuela de Hostelería de las Islas Baleares, Escuela Superior de Hostelería de Barcelona).

He has taught the Master of Tourism Innovation at the School of Communication at Granada ESCO. Also, the Master of Hotel Management at Universidad de Alicante.

As an expert in the sharing economy of tourism, he has opened and moderated a panel in the 60th Meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Commission for Europe, celebrated in Vilnius (Lithuania). He has given the opening speech of the Escuela Universitaria de Lanzarote at Universidad de Las Palmas.

Since 2013 he is organizing a round of seminars tourism innovation, #hotel2020, in the Spanish cities of Santander, Zaragoza, Sevilla, Malaga, Cadiz, Lanzarote and Santiago de Compostela. In 2014, the road show extends to the cities of Palma de Majorca, Benidorm, Barcelona, Madrid, Caceres, Pamplona, Jerez de la Frontera, Puerto Varas (Chile), Bogota and Santa Marta (Colombia) and New York (United States). More info: www.seminariosfernandogallardo.com (in Spanish)

His research interest in tourism has led him to teach more than 400 conferences since 1978 and publishing more than 3,000 articles.

His passion for travel, audit and hotels prescription been allowed to visit more than 26,000 travel lodgings for 36 years of professional experience in the following 103 countries:

Europe: Spain, Portugal, Andorra, France, Monaco, Italy, San Marino, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Malta.

Asia: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Turkey.

Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast , Cape Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Mauritius, Swaziland, Zimbabwe.

America: Canada, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana, Uruguay.

Oceania: Australia, French Polynesia.

Part of his tourist experience has also been used as a major international fairs ITB (Berlin, World Travel Market (London), FITUR (Madrid), New York Times Travel Show NYTTS (New York), BIT (Brussels), BIT (Milan), BTL (Lisbon).

Born in Melilla, raised in Madrid, he currently lives in New York.