Four New Conference Sessions Added to ITB Asia

Messe Berlin (Singapore), organiser of ITB Asia, has added four new conference sessions to this year’s show.

The sessions include panel discussions on ‘Loyalty Programmes’, ‘Boutique Hotels’, ‘Women in Action’ and a ‘Business Travel Plenary Session’.

Held from 19-21 October in Suntec Singapore, ITB Asia delegates can look forward to a powerful speaker line-up for all four sessions which will take place across the three days of the show.

This year’s conference programme is already the show’s largest line-up to date, with the addition of the inaugural TTG Travel Agent Conference, the Asia for Asia Conference organised by Singapore Tourism Board, as well as the second installment of the successful ITB Asia Association Day.

“The conference component has always been a key element of ITB Asia's knowledge-sharing platform and this year’s programme is all set to be even bigger and better with over 3,000 minutes of high powered content, about 40% more compared to 2010,” said Nino Gruettke, Executive Director of ITB Asia. “To ensure that ITB Asia truly represents the travel industry, we’ve put together an exciting and more in-depth programme that will probe into the most relevant issues surrounding the industry this year. All sessions will be addressed by key industry players who will provide case studies and share first hand experiences and valuable insights not only from the Asia Pacific region but from around the world.”

The conference programme will kick-off on the first day of the show with a keynote speech from Paul Brown, Hilton Worldwide’s President of Global Brands & Commercial Services, who will address the impact of demography and technology on MICE business in Asia.

The panel on loyalty programmes held on the same day will be represented by industry heavyweights including Paul Kerr, President & CEO of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Robert M. Rush, President & CEO of LRA Worldwide, a leading global research and consulting company focused on customer experience management, Maria Taylor, Vice President Loyalty and Direct Sales, Asia Pacific for Accor, Sung-A Hong from Starwood’s Loyalty and Partner Marketing division, Alfie Yee, Director of Marketing, Asia Pacific, Hilton Worldwide and Sim Beng Koon, Regional Director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE).

The session on boutique hotels which will also take place on 19 October, will feature speakers from some of the best brands in the business, including Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Wanderlust, New Majestic, Hotel 1929, The Scarlet Hotel, W Hotels Worldwide and Design Hotels. In this discussion, boutique hotel industry leaders will share some of their trade secrets and big chains will also reveal their strategies on countering competition from the niche players.

The Business Travel Plenary session will include research findings on ‘The Economic Impact of Business Travel in Asia Pacific’ by Adam Sacks, Managing Director of Tourism Economics. The company designs market strategy models, tourism policy recommendations, tourism forecasting models, and tourism economic impact studies. This session will take place on the second day of the show, 20 October.

The final conference session which is scheduled to take place on 21 October, will put the spotlight on female travel leaders. These ‘Women in Action’ will share the stories of their journeys, what they have done to achieve success and their vision for the future of travel and tourism. Speakers confirmed so far for this panel include Claire Chiu, Director of Business Development from Warwick International Hotels, Jeanette Ho, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Raffles Fairmont Hotels, Aya Aso, President & CEO of Agora Hospitalities who manages the Nojiriko Hotel EL BOSCO, a boutique resort hotel in Nagano Prefecture, Japan and Barbara Gallay, President, FROSCH New York. Gallay also sits on various advisory boards including The Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, and Starwood Luxury Collection. She was featured in Crain’s ‘Top 100 Businesswomen in New York’ and Forbes’ ‘Top 25 Women in Travel’.

ITB Asia is also a partner event of TravelRave, a mega travel and tourism festival week organised by the Singapore Tourism Board to be held in Singapore in October 2011.

See recent travel news from: Travel News Asia, Messe Berlin, ITB Asia, Suntec, Singapore