The boss of a leading ‘sharing economy’ website will address this year’s Abta Travel Convention on the fast-growing sector and a government review completed last year.
Entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow, chief executive of Love Home Swap, will lead the session at the annual event which is due to take place in Costa Navarino, Greece, on October 12-14.
The announcement of Wosskow’ involvement comes as the early bird rate for delegates is due to expire on Monday.
After July 20 the cost for Abta members goes up £50 to £500, non-Abta delegates fees will rise from £615 to £675.
Wosskow is the author of ‘Unlocking the Sharing Economy’, the independent review of the sharing economy commissioned by the UK government in 2014.
She is also the founding chairwoman of Sharing Economy UK, the new trade association for the sharing economy.
A former management consultant, Wosskow launched her first business, marketing and communications consultancy Mantra, at the age of just 25, before selling it to the Loewy Group.
Love Home Swap, a leading home exchange site, recently announced a strategic partnership with Wyndham Exchange & Rentals.
A spokeswoman for the Travel Convention said: “We’ve asked Debbie to explain why the government set up a sharing economy review and what came out of it. What were the issues that were identified?
“We’ve also asked her to talk about how she sees her own business model fitting into the travel sector. We haven’t fleshed any of this out in detail yet.”
At last year’s convention in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Abta chairman Noel Josephides raised concerns about the rise of the so-called peer-to-peer sharing economy, led by the likes of Airbnb.