The future of travel is centre stage at this year’s World Travel Market London, with the opening keynote to be presented by futurist, Rohit Talwar.
Talwar is co-founder and CEO of Fast Future, a research and insights business that specialises in the fields of futures and foresight. It was set up in 2015 and works across multiple industries and with governments.
His keynote, taking place on the Future Stage on Monday 7 November at 10.30am, is headlined “The Future of Travel Starts Now”. In the session he will outline his vision for the future for travel, a future in which humans need to remain at the centre of agenda as technology continues to progress.
He has written extensively about the relationship between humans and technology, co-authoring books such as Beyond Genuine Stupidity – Ensuring AI Serves Humanity, The Future Reinvented – Reimagining Life, Society, and Business, and A Very Human Future – Enriching Humanity in a Digitized World.
Following on from his opening keynote, Talwar will remain on site and will be hosting two other sessions on opening day at World Travel Market London. At 2pm he will be leading the conversation for a second time, this time drilling down into one of the sector’s most challenging themes of the year – the talent crisis. In this session, he will outline what travel companies can do to encourage staff to think about the future with a structured, forward-thinking, and outside-in leadership mindset.
“Embracing ‘Next’ and Creating Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders” will explore different approaches to scanning the horizon, how to better assess risks and opportunities, and how to embed foresight into all aspects of planning, innovation, and change. The session is on the Insight Stage.
Elsewhere, Talwar will be moderating a session uncovering what travel could look like in 2030 and beyond and he will be joined on stage by travel heavyweights Simon Calder, one of the UK’s best known travel journalists and broadcasters, Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council, and Peter Krüger, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Strategy Officer at TUI.
Juliette Losardo, Exhibition Director, WTM London, said:
“We’re excited to welcome Rohit Talwar to World Travel Market London. Over the past few years, many of us have been forced to focus heavily on the short term – the day-to-day. We recognise the need to pause and allow ourselves to dream bigger and broader, beyond short-term fixing, to the future – and to what could be possible.
“Rohit’s ability to talk about a vision for beyond 2030 is inspiring, and his insights into the role of humans in an increasingly tech-driven world make his sessions ‘must-attend’.”
—-ENDS—-
Photography from previous WTM shows is available to download via the following link: https://wtm.mediafiler.net/wtm/start/index
World Travel Market (WTM) Portfolio comprises leading travel events, online portals and virtual platforms across four continents. The events are:
WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend three-day exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. The show facilitates business connections for the global (leisure) travel community. Senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media visit ExCeL London every November, generating travel industry contracts.
Next live event: Monday 7 to 9 November 2022 at ExCel London
Arabian Travel Market (ATM), now on its 30th year, is the leading, international travel and tourism event in the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals. ATM 2022 attracted over 23,000 visitors and hosted over 30,000 participants including 1,500 exhibitors and attendees from 150 countries, across 10 halls at Dubai World Trade Centre. Arabian Travel Market is part of Arabian Travel Week. #ATMDubai
Next in-person event: Monday 1 to Thursday 4 May 2023, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai
https://www.wtm.com/atm/en-gb.html
Arabian Travel Week is a festival of events taking place within and alongside Arabian Travel Market 2023. Providing a renewed focus for the Middle East’s travel and tourism sector, it includes ILTM Arabia, ARIVAL Dubai, Influencers’ events and activations, ITIC, GBTA Business Travel Forums, as well as ATM Travel Tech. It also features the ATM Buyer Forums, ATM Speed Networking Events as well as a series of country forums.
https://www.wtm.com/arabian-travel-week/en-gb.html
WTM Latin America takes place annually in the city of São Paulo and attracts around 20,000 tourism professionals during the three-day event. The event offers qualified content together with networking and business opportunities. In this its ninth edition – there have been eight face-to-face events along with a 100% virtual one, which was held in 2021 – WTM Latin America continued to focus on effective business generation, and achieved the advance booking of six thousand meetings that were held between buyers, travel agents and exhibitors in 2022.
Next event: Monday April 3rd to Wednesday 5th April 2023 – Expo Center Norte, SP, Brazil
WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2022, WTM Africa facilitated more than 7 thousand unique pre-scheduled appointments, an increase of more than 7% compared to 2019 and welcomed more than 6 thousand visitors (unaudited), the same number as in 2019.
Next event: Monday 3 to Wednesday 5 April 2023 – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town http://africa.wtm.com/
About ATW Connect: Africa Travel Week’s digital arm, is a virtual hub packed to the seams with interesting content, industry news and insights, and the opportunity to hear from experts on a variety of topics in our new monthly webinar series. All with the aim to keep all of us in the travel and tourism industry connected. ATW Connect focuses on inbound and outbound markets for general leisure tourism, luxury travel, LGBTQ+ travel and the MICE/business travel sector as well as travel technology.
WTM Global Hub, is the new WTM Portfolio online portal created to connect and support travel industry professionals around the world. The resource hub offers the latest guidance and knowledge to help exhibitors, buyers and others in the travel industry face the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic. WTM Portfolio is tapping into its global network of experts to create content for the hub. https://hub.wtm.com/
About RX (Reed Exhibitions)
RX is in the business of building businesses for individuals, communities and organisations. We elevate the power of face to face events by combining data and digital products to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 400 events in 22 countries across 43 industry sectors. RX is passionate about making a positive impact on society and is fully committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all our people. RX is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.rxglobal.com
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