From 9 to 11 March 2016 around 400 leading experts and international entrepreneurs will be gathering at the ITB Berlin Convention to examine new trends and highlight best practices.
On Wednesday, 9 March, ITB Destination General Secretary of UNWTO Dr. Taleb Rifai will discuss ’Authenticity and sustainability in tourism in booming Asian regions: the best practice example of Kayah State, Myanmar’ with international representatives.
Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Dr. Gerd Müller will conclude day one of the ITB Destination Days with an introductory paper on ’Travel for ONE WORLD – sustainable tourism, a success factor in developing and emerging countries’, which afterwards will be the subject of a debate. Discussion points will include the tasks facing politics and the travel industry and how to successfully coordinate the work of state-sponsored development and the tourism industry.
Also on 9 March, at the ITB Future Day, EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther H. Oettinger will deliver a keynote speech on the mega trend of digitalization. Topics include shaping overall conditions at political and technological level in the EU in order to ensure the success of the digital transition in society, the economy and the tourism industry, and supporting innovative developments so as to guarantee the industry remains competitive.
Prof. Dr. Roland Conrady, science head of the ITB Berlin will conduct a keynote interview with Dr. Oliver Heckmann, vice president, Travel and Shopping, Google Inc.
The subject is ‘From micro moments to a seamless travel planning and booking process’. Oliver Heckmann, who is in charge of the global travel market at Google, will give his view of the future of travel search and booking processes, explain how in the future inspiration for trips and planning and booking them will be interlinked, and will provide an insight into Google‘s new Destination Mobile Interface.
On 9 March at the Young Professionals Day, the keynote interview will look at ‘The future of work in the tourism industry: will humanoid robots make us defunct?’ Keynote speaker Dr. Carl Benedikt Frey, co-director and Oxford Martin Citi Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, University of Oxford, will talk about employing artificial intelligence and humanoid robots in the service sector, the current situation in the international tourism industry, and how our jobs will change in the future.
