DRSingapore: ITB Asia, Asia’s leading travel trade show, has announced this year’s impressive line-up of keynote speakers. Under the overarching conference theme of ‘Travel Reimagined’, key industry leaders will be providing insights on the major trends provoking disruption across the travel industry and how they are innovating in order to stay ahead. Hosted at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, the conference will take place from October 17 – 19, 2018.
The opening keynote session on October 17 will be led by global leaders from Facebook,Microsoft and Trip.com, focusing on today’s complex travel industry issues including themajor technological changes driving disruption in the travel sector, such as the rise in global smartphone ownership, how organisations are evolving their business models to remain competitive and their vision for the future of the travel industry.
The keynote addresses will be delivered by Nikhilesh Ponde, Global Head of Travel Strategy, Facebook, Shane O’Flaherty, Global Director of Travel and Transportation, Microsoft, and Xing Xiong, CEO, Trip.com, one of the world’s leading online travel agencies.
Shane O’Flaherty will elaborate on travel disruption and how this will change the way we travel and do business. He will also share his thoughts on how to create a seamless customer journey and empower employees for greater efficiency and creativity.
Shane said, “Shifting traveller profiles and expectations for more connectedexperiences is raising the bar throughout the travel journey. Advances in technology areopening up tremendous opportunity to drive revenue, lower operating cost and create newbusiness models in ways we only talked about in the past. The future is already here.”
Day two’s keynote on October 18 will be a new intermediaries panel session with a focuson the future of travel distribution. OTAs, metasearch engines and new intermediaries aredisrupting distribution, with a 360-degree view of customers in a way that other travelindustry players cannot — at least today. With deep customer data and analytics, they aretargeting the management of customer relationships, working as facilitators of mobility.
The second keynote panel session will be led by industry players including Amy Wei, Vice President, APAC, KAYAK; Andrew Hughes, Regional Director of Sourcing, Hotelbeds; FilipFilipov, Vice President of Product, Skyscanner; and Charlie Osmond, Founder & Chief Tease, Triptease, who will share their insights on how they plan tosucceed as the industry continues to move forward.
The keynote panel session on October 19, day three, will focus on ‘winning over today’s Chinese travellers’, looking at China’s outbound travellers, one of the country’s largest exports, and how their spending power is reshaping the world today.
Top travel industryleaders including Alessandro Dassi, CEO & General Manager, Greater China & Far East, Thomas Cook; Troy Liu, Founder & CEO, Mileslife; and Changle Yang, COO, Tujia,will provide their unique insights on connecting travel brands with Chinese millennials, new trends and driving forces and how to market destinations to the tech-savvy Chinese travellers.
“We are seeing unprecedented disruption in the travel industry as new technological advances compel travel brands to adapt and transform their business strategies. We are delighted to welcome global leaders from Facebook, Microsoft and Trip.com for our opening panel session. They will no doubt provide fascinating insights on how travel brands can embrace the changes that are shaking up the industry. We look forward to a truly exciting start to this year’s show,” said Katrina Leung, Managing Director, Messe Berlin (Singapore), organiser of ITB Asia. ITB Asia keynote sessions allow attendees to get to the heart of today’s complex travel issues with the shared expertise and vision of major industry leaders. By attending exclusive interviews and panel discussions, participants will gain insight into the major trends and innovations they need to embrace to remain competitive.
For more information on ITB Asia 2018, visit www.itb-asia.com
