This year’s Abta Travel Convention will hear from a leading expert in globalisation about the risks and opportunities of an increasingly interconnected world.
Oxford University’s Professor Ian Goldin will address delegates at the event in Costa Navarino, Greece, on October 12-14 on how they can ensure their companies are resilient to global shocks.
The theme of the annual overseas event is ‘Risk and Resilience’ focusing on how travel firms can plan for future success while protecting themselves against potential hazards.
Mark Tanzer, Abta chief executive said: “We are all operating in an increasingly connected and increasingly uncertain global network.
“By nature of what we do as an industry we have a high level of exposure to political, economic and business risk.
“But history also shows that it is in times of uncertainty that the greatest businesses have been created, so we shall be looking at how you manage downside risk, but also how you seize the future.”
Professor Goldin is director of Oxford Martin School at Oxford University and a former vice president of the World Bank and chief executive of the Development Bank of South Africa.
He has recently co-authored a book, The Butterfly Defect, which looks at the benefits of a hyperconnected world and the repercussions of cross-border financial meltdowns and environmental disasters.
His talk will analyse what the implications are for travel in a globalised world of pandemics, climate change and economic, political and environmental shocks and in which risks are spread across supply chains.
Abta said: “Professor Goldin attributes the extraordinary growth of the past thirty years to unprecedented globalisation and acceleration of technological change. He will consider whether these trends will continue.
“Following an examination of the opportunities arising from economic and technological change, professor Goldin will turn his attention to the risks. He shows that the nature of risk is undergoing fundamental change and that risk analysis requires new frameworks.”
The session by Professor Goldin builds on the presentation last year by Professor Susan Harper who looked at demographic, population and employment trends and how these might affect the travel sector.
For more details on The Travel Convention and to register go to thetravelconvention.com