ITB Asia’s 10th Edition Looks to the Future of Travel

Milestone event will feature stellar line-up of keynotes and speakers, amidst record participation from international partners

Cementing its status as ‘Asia’s Leading Travel Trade Show’, ITB Asia 2017 will celebrate its 10th anniversary with an exciting view to the future of travel and tourism. ITB Asia 2017 will take place at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, during October 25 – 27. 

Under the conference theme “The Future of Travel”, ITB Asia 2017 will showcase an extensive program of key presentations and discussions by industry heavyweights from the travel and tourism sector. This includes global brand names as well as promising travel startups.

Artificial Intelligence and OTAs: Focus of ITB Asia 2017 keynotes

To kick off the show, headlining keynote speakers on Day 1 include Tony Menezes, Vice President of Industrial and Distribution Sectors at IBM Asia Pacific, Rob Torres, Managing Director of Advertising and Marketing at Google, and Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip. Both speakers from IBM and Google will focus on Artificial Intelligence while Ms Sun from Ctrip will speak on its global strategy.

On Day 2, the highlight of the keynote panel will focus on the trends and market conditions of the travel trade market and how Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are transforming travel through technology, particularly in Korea, Japan and India. Moderated by Nick Vivion, Editorial Director of Tnooz, the panel will include Ike Anand, Vice President at Expedia, Min Yoon, CEO of Tidesquare, Amit Taneja, Chief Revenue Officer
of Cleartrip, Ken Mishima, VP of eCommerce Strategy at iJTB, and Jose Murta, Global Head of Hospitality at trivago.

Virtual reality, Cruise and travel innovation: Trends and opportunities

While virtual reality has mainly been used in promotional and marketing materials, hotel and accommodation visualization and training, disruptive startups Hiverlab and Zebra Design will share their experiences on the exciting realities and opportunities for augmented reality and VR in hospitality and tourism.

With younger generations, including the millennials and Generation X, forecast to embrace cruise travel more than ever before, ITB Asia 2017 will feature its first Cruise panel. The line-up will feature global cruise operators who will discuss the rise of cruise in Asia Pacific and the growing market and opportunities. Moderated by Christina Siaw, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Cruises Centre, confirmed panelists include companies such as SkySea Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, Princess Cruises, Carnival Asia and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

ITB Asia will also for the first time, launch an innovation travel tech track hosted by Israeli startup InnoVel that will connect travel companies with cutting-edge startups. The crosssharing is designed to address concrete pains in areas such as revenue management, customer engagement, online marketing and more.

Corporate Day with MICE partners

As corporate and MICE participants at ITB Asia have grown in the past years, the exhibition has announced its first ever Corporate Day on 26 October, with confirmed partners such as the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), Egencia, Corporate Travel Management, UOB Travel and Airbnb who will deliver presentations and workshops on the corporate sector at ITB Asia.

Following the success and launch in 2016, MICE Day will return for the second edition in 2017 on 25 October. Confirmed partners include American Express, Incentive Conference and Event Society Asia Pacific (ICESAP), International SOS, Meetings Professional International (MPI), The Philippine Association of Convention/Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers, Inc. (PACEOS), Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), and United Networks of International Corporate Events Organisers (UNICEO).

Held by Messe Berlin (Singapore), ITB Asia 2017 is expected to top the success of ITB Asia in 2016, where almost 900 buyers attended the show, leading to a 1:1 ratio between exhibitors and buyers whilst over 50 percent of buyers signed deals with exhibitors after the event. 43 percent of attending buyers had purchasing power of USD 500K – USD 1m and 85.7 percent of attending buyers were direct decision makers.

ITB Asia 2018 is now available for stand booking and interested exhibitors may email exhibitor@itb-asia.com.

For more information on ITB Asia 2017, press here.

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) is an official media partner of ITB Asia 2017.