THE ITB Berlin Convention, which is free of charge for trade visitors and exhibitors, will open on March 5 with an address by Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Bin Tan Sri Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s Minister of Tourism and Culture.
His address will be followed by three keynote speeches. Nils Müller, CEO of Trend ONE, will be giving his predictions on how people will travel in 2025; Lee McCabe, head of travel strategy at Facebook, will offer a look behind the scenes at the company that operates the world’s largest social networking site; and Harald Eisenächer, senior vice-president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Sabre Travel Network will talk about big data and its role as a key resource for understanding customer behaviour and generating added value.
At day one of the ITB Destination Days, Christine Duffy, president and CEO of CLIA, will explain how destinations can participate in the cruise industry boom. Afterwards, Loveleen Tandan, co-director of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, will deliver a speech on ‘Slums, war zones and extreme regions: development potential and tourism destinations’.
ARABIA IN FOCUS
Day two of the ITB Destination Days will open with a speech by Sheikha Mai Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Culture, on the topic of ‘Cultural heritage: Bahrain as an example of valorisation and tourism marketing’.
Speakers at the session, titled ‘Destination Arabia’, will include Samih Sawiris, chairman of Orascom HD, who will be talking about future developments in the various regions of the Arab world. Award-winning travel writer Doug Lansky will talk about ‘How to fix overcrowded destinations and attractions with new intelligent visitor management technologies’.
On March 7 at the ITB CSR Day the discussion will be about every aspect of sustainability. Dr Taleb Rifai, secretary general of World Tourism Organisation, will be outlining his vision of sustainability in tourism over the next fifty years.