Businesses that connect and create brands that communicate what they do as opposed to who they are are the ones that will survive in a new age of mankind.
That was the message attendees of the World Travel Market opening ceremony heard from former Burger King chairman and chief executive Barry Gibbons.
He told delegates on the annual trade show’s opening day that he believed a new age of mankind had dawned following the information revolution, driven by computing and the internet.
“I think we have drifted into a new age and we have not realised it,” he said. “Therefore we have a problem.
“If you wanted to create a new name for this new age you could be very cynical and very negative. I would choose to call it the age of alienation.
“I have never known so many tensions and schisms on this planet between doctor and patient, pupil and teacher, politician and voter. We will never think of the banks in the same way again.
“But I won’t have a negative name for a new age. I would like to call it the age of connection. There will be winners and losers and there will be organisations that connect and glue [us together].
“It can be done, it will be done. We all seem today to have this need to connect. Apple have done it, John Lewis has done it. It can be done.”
Gibbons said this will require a new approach to branding similar to the moves the Virgin Group under Richard Branson has taken, to emphasise brand values.
“It’s not about what you do, it’s more about how you do it. Branding is what you stand for. Write on the back of a business card the three things your business exudes because that’s what will give distinction in a cluttered marketplace.
“The only purpose of being in business is to secure and retain customers. I cannot tell you the number of chief executives I have seen tell you they are customer-centric. They do not mean it.
“Now its time might have come. The winners will provide new leadership and the branding is going to be very different.”
WTM chairman Fiona Jeffery told the opening ceremony that although it is going through challenging times, the travel industry had proven itself as a key driver of economic growth.
She said globally one in five jobs are directly or indirectly reliant on the sector and had this message for governments, financial institutions and authorities worldwide:
“Do not cut investment, do not water down support. The travel and tourism record demonstrates we are not a poor relation.
“Travel and tourism is an industry with a towering future. It can turn lives around.”
The opening ceremony also saw Travolution, WTM’s first global media partner for technology and Travel Weekly sister title, give a WTM Global Award to Priceline’s Glenn Fogel.