NEW FORMAT ON THE ITB BERLİN

BERLİN – Next year, on the eve of ITB Berlin and featuring high-ranking participants, the ITB Berlin Convention will kick off with an event on the topical subject of omni-channel marketing. Among those taking part in the new ITB Summit on 4 March 2014 from 2 to 6 p.m. will be Facebook’s Head of Travel Lee McCabe, who will talk about the prospects for social media securing new customers. Rounding off the programme will be a thought-provoking discussion at which members of various parts of the media will debate the future of marketing communications. Jürgen Scharrer, editor-in-chief of Horizont, will moderate the ITB Summit. Admission to this event is by invitation only. If you have any queries please send an email to: summit2014@itb-convention.com.

The ITB Berlin Convention will also be examining forward-looking topics.
Numerous speakers have already been invited. The programme of the ITB Berlin Convention is now available at www.itb-convention.com. Admission is free of charge for trade visitors.

On 5 March 2014 at the ITB Future Day, Nils Müller, CEO of TrendONE, will look ahead to the year 2025 and present some innovative travel products. Jean-Claude Biver, the president of the administrative board of Hublot, will talk about the rules of the market for luxury products. An executive who has won many awards, he will explain how globally, customers’ attitudes towards luxury products are changing and will provide an insight into the secrets of successful luxury brand management. Rolf Freitag, CEO of IPK International, will present the ITB World Travel Trends Report, the world’s largest survey of its kind.

The Airline CEO Panel will examine whether low-cost carriers pose a threat to established charter companies. Panel members will include Alex Cruz, CEO of Vueling, Dr. Dieter Nirschl, CEO of TUIfly GmbH, and Thomas Winkelmann, CEO of Germanwings. Taking place on 6 March 2014 at the ITB Hospitality Day under the heading of “Luxury & Eco – Contradiction or Entitlement? Walking barefoot for 1,000 Euros per night. A talk with a sustainable luxury hotelier and a researcher”, another CEO panel will also discuss the subject of luxury products. Panel members will include Bernhard Bohnenberger, the president of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, Bangkok.

Herbert Lechner, Division Manager, GfK, will provide a comprehensive analysis of the customer journey and how the relevant channels concerning customers are exploited. Prof. Dr. Roland Conrady, the science head of the ITB Berlin Convention and president of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tourismuswissenschaft (DGT) e.V. at Hochschule Worms will present the latest findings of an exclusive survey entitled “Customer reviews: do they influence purchases and are they credible and relevant in terms of strategy?.“

From 5 to 7 March 2014 at the ITB Destination Days one of the topics will be the prospects for tourism in crisis-hit regions. On 5 March representatives from Iraq, Iran and Yemen will give their accounts of best and worst practices. The following day a session will focus on the Arab region as a travel destination. At an event moderated by Prof. Dr. Heba Aziz, Head of the Department of Sustainable Tourism and Regional Development at the German University of Technology in Oman GUtech, representatives from Arab countries will talk about the rapid pace of change in this region. On the same day the award-winning travel journalist Doug Lansky will report on technological innovations in highly populated tourism regions as well as intelligent ways to manage tourism flows. Among the speakers on the afternoon of the same day will be Dr. Heike Platter, Head of Marketing of Gärten Schloss Trauttmansdorff, who will provide an overview of the prospects for positioning tourism destinations on the market as well as an insight into gardening tourism. Papers will also be held by representatives of sports, movie and medical tourism.

On 7 March Shannon Stowell, the president of ATTA, and Rika Jean-Francois, in charge of CSR at ITB Berlin, will open the ITB CSR Day. In addition to discussion rounds on the subject of human rights and the promotion of tourism projects there will also be a session on glamping, a new market segment. Taking an award-winning business model as an example, Sergio Comino, the director of Jesolo International, will talk about the future market prospects for camping. At a session with Thomas P. Illes, the managing director and editor of Cruise Analyst, the focus will be on sustainability in the cruise industry and the continuing development of technology to protect the environment.

From 5 to 7 March at ITB, Training & Education in Tourism in Hall 11.1 will provide newcomers to the job market and academically qualified young employees in the travel industry with ideas for shaping their future careers. At the ITB Young Professional Day experts including Michael Buller, Chairman of Verband Internet Reisevertrieb (VIR), will talk about acquiring technological expertise as a stepping stone towards tourism studies.

The supporting programme of the eTravel World has been extended to include the Saturday of the show, thus taking the ever-increasing demand for travel technology information into account.

ABOUT ITB BERLİN AND THE ITB BERLİN CONVENTİON

ITB Berlin 2014 will take place from Wednesday to Sunday, 5 to 9 March. From the Wednesday to the Friday ITB Berlin is open to trade visitors only. The ITB Berlin Convention is held parallel with the trade fair, from Wednesday to Saturday, 5 to 8 March 2014. It is the world’s largest specialist convention for the industry. More details are available at www.itb-convention.com. Malaysia is the Convention & Culture Partner of ITB Berlin 2014. ITB Berlin is the leading trade fair for the worldwide travel industry. In 2013 a total of 10,086 companies and organisations from 188 countries exhibited their products and services to 170,000 visitors, who included 110,000 trade visitors.