Delegates at this year’s Abta Travel Convention will hear about the fast emerging peer-to-peer online business model from one of its leading exponents.
HouseTrip chief marketing officer Zaid Al-Qassab is the latest speaker to be lined up for the annual overseas travel industry event.
This year the Travel Convention will take place in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana from September 21 to 23.
Al-Qassab, who joined HouseTrip in January after 20 years at Proctor and Gamble, will talk about the spectacular growth of the peer-to-peer sector in recent years.
HouseTrip competes in the same space at Airbnb, the leading US pioneer in the private holiday rental marketplace and a growing threat to the traditional travel sector.
The emergence of the peer-to-peer concept has been controversial, not just in the challenge it represents to established players but in terms of regulatory and legal questions it raises.
HouseTrip offers more than 320,000 properties in around 20,000 destinations worldwide, with an average of 3,000 new listings added each week.
Later in the convention programme, three of the UK’s most established brands will debate maintaining their ground and finding new opportunities as the peer-to-peer economy reaches critical mass.