Travel Convention speakers to assess key industry themes

The Travel Convention will open with an appraisal of the geopolitical situation from political journalist and broadcaster Lewis Goodall, who spoke at the 2022 convention and will look at the forces shaping the political, economic and social currents in turn shaping consumer and business confidence.

An industry panel will bring together easyJet holidays chief executive Garry Wilson, Barrhead Travel president Jacqueline Dobson and On the Beach chief executive Sean Morton to discuss ‘Leading through Uncertainty’.

Eleanor Winton, founder of business consultancy Foresightfully and former head of KPMG’s Future Institute, will talk about future trends and business strategies.

More: Interview: ‘We’re in an era of uncertainty’, says Abta chief

Robbie Hodges of consumer intelligence analyst TrendWatching will look at changing consumer behaviour.

Cybersecurity expert Jenny Ratcliffe, who describes herself as a ‘burglar for hire’, will explain why people are a point of vulnerability and how to address that.

Tanzer noted: “Our industry is so tech dependent and connections between booking systems, airports and everything else are so real time, a cyber problem could be a major issue. This has fallen slightly off the radar, but it hasn’t gone away.”

Indeed, if anything, cybersecurity is back on the agenda following a succession of reports of AI agents hacking businesses.

He said: “AI is moving so fast. We’ve all talked it to death, but I’m constantly surprised how quickly people are picking it up, working with and adapting it.

“People are using two [or more] AI systems to give more security around what is generated. I talked to someone who ran something through Claude, saying ‘Do this’, then ran the same thing through Copilot or ChatGPT saying ‘Verify what Claude has done’, then ran the changes back through Claude to verify the changes.”

Technology development will also feature in a session on AI and future leadership with Natalie Campbell MBE, chair of the Workforce Development Trust.

Tanzer explained: “Natalie will talk about the human capabilities that technology can’t replace [and] how you balance these. Finance people say, ‘We can take this and that out to cut costs.’ But you end up with a desiccated kind of business.”

Dr Gabrielle Walker, an expert on carbon removal from the atmosphere who spoke at the 2019 Travel Convention, has been invited back to provide an update on progress in the past seven years.