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The ITT is urging members to take advantage of its early-bird rate for next year’s conference.
The special price of £485 is available until the end of the month, offering a saving of £100.
The event will take place between June 6-8 in Tel Aviv, Israel with the likes of Tui’s Peter Long, Thomas Cook’s Chris Mottershead and former MP Ed Balls announced as speakers.
Labour MP Mary Creagh will also take part in a political panel discussion on the UK’s membership of the European Union.
A referendum is expected to take place shortly after the conference ends and ITT chairman Steven Freudmann believes it is crucial that the trade is well informed.
“Clearly, there are huge issues for us as an industry, not least employment issues for representatives that work overseas, but also things like the Schengen agreement – and even the euro,” he said.
Freudmann revealed he had also approached Ukip’s only MP, Douglas Carswell, as well as an unnamed Tory to join Creagh and Balls on the panel.
Another new speaker set to appear in Tel Aviv is Richard Fenning, chief executive of consultancy Control Risks.
Meanwhile, Barrhead Travel has been signed up as headline sponsors of the event. “Barrhead Travel believes that the ITT Conference is the best travel event of the year. That, coupled with the work that ITT does throughout the rest of the year, means we are delighted to be sponsoring the event,” said chief executive Sharon Munro.
“The opportunity to network with a large number of decision-makers over a short period is invaluable to us in helping to strengthen our relationships with all the key people in the travel industry.”
In the knowThe ITT is running a mobile masterclass on January 15 with Amadeus. The event will help members understand which strategies work best for individual businesses. |
On October 30 I moderated an ITT Masterclass, which highlighted lessons from the retail sector and considered what the digital landscape would look like for travel in five to 10 years’ time.
We invited an expert panel from retail and travel consisting of Daniel Robb, Tui’s director of digital, Ian Morgan, managing director of corporate digital banking at Barclays, Jeremy Morris, Google’s head of retail, and Dean Harvey, digital development director at Designate.
They recognised that there are challenges for any marketer. How do you make the most of your marketing budget, spot future trends and identify what is the right marketing mix for your target market? The message was that we should not lose sight of investing in our brands to gain market share.
This is something travel has lost sight of, whereas the retail sector heavily invests in emotional entanglement with their brands. Even when we do invest, travel often loses opportunities for positive emotional triggers by cramming our ads with distractions like prices and discounts.
On the digital level we clearly have a long way to catch up with the retail sector, which has invested in early engagement with customers, by striving to integrate the use of PCs, tablets and mobile to drive online sales and high street footfall.
So what is the near future of the travel sector? The general feeling was of a digital landscape that will play a bigger part on how we feel about a brand while new tools will make a door-to-door travel experience become a reality.
Look out for our range of ITT Masterclasses: they could be one of the best investments you’ve made.
Simon Johnson F.Inst.TT is an ITT board director and director of YS Comms Ltd
