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 at ITB Asia’s, ‘Asia’s Leading Travel Trade Show’. Hosted at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, the conference will take place from October 17 to 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 the major 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 from Facebook, Shane O'Flaherty, global director of travel and transportation from Microsoft and Xing Xiong, CEO from 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. Day two’s keynote on October 18 will be a new intermediaries panel session with a focus on the future of travel distribution. OTAs, metasearch engines and new intermediaries are disrupting distribution, with a 360-degree view of customers in a way that other travel industry players cannot — at least today. With deep customer data and analytics, they are targeting 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 from KAYAK, Andrew Hughes, regional director of sourcing from Hotelbeds, Filip Filipov, vice-president of product from Skyscanner and Charlie Osmond, founder & Chief Tease from Triptease, who will share their insights on how they plan to succeed 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 industry leaders including Alessandro Dassi, CEO & general manager, Greater China & Far East from Thomas Cook, Troy Liu, founder & CEO from Mileslife and Changle Yang, COO from 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.