With just one week to go until this year’s hybrid Travel Convention on Wednesday 13 October, there are a limited number of places left to attend in-person at East Wintergarden in London’s Canary Wharf and online via the customised digital platform.

Registration for in-person places will close on Monday 11 October, with online places remaining open until the morning of Wednesday 13 October at thetravelconvention.com/register.

Under the theme Leading the Way – envisaging and inspiring in extraordinary times, this year’s expert speakers and industry leaders will offer their advice on how to lead a business through adversity, share the latest insights on changing consumer attitudes and behaviours, and set out how companies can innovate and adapt to future-proof their businesses.

Highlights from the one-day programme of keynote speeches, high-level business sessions, panel discussions and networking opportunities include:

• Speeches from leading industry figures on their approach to leadership and what’s next for international travel, including Julia Simpson, President and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council, Andrew Swaffield, CCO for the Virgin Group & CEO for Virgin Red, and Ailsa Pollard, CEO of dnata Travel Group (UK & Europe).
• Insights on the future of aviation from Richard Carret, Vice President Alliance Development & Communications at Star Alliance and on the short- and medium-term outlook for business travel from Suzanne Horner, Chair of the Business Travel Association and CEO of Grey Dawes Travel.
• Tips on how destinations and businesses can adapt to new trends and changing consumer demands from Manuel Butler, UK Director of the Spanish National Tourist Office, Tom Johnson, Managing Director of Trajectory, and brand and marketing expert, Graham Hales.
• Two panel discussions; one to tackle how we can purposefully rebuild a responsible and resilient tourism industry and a second to discuss how travel businesses can adopt new ways of working to respond to the changes brought about by the pandemic.
• Live at the Convention, journalist and broadcaster, Rachel Johnson, will interview TV personality and entrepreneur, Jo Wood, to find out more about her remarkable life for a special edition of her LBC podcast Rachel Johnson’s Difficult Women.
• Joining as a guest speaker, barrister, campaigner and writer, Mohsin Zaidi, will be discussing his acclaimed memoir, A Dutiful Boy, which touches on important issues for business leaders, such as diversity and mental health.

For more information on the order of the day, please visit thetravelconvention.com/sessions.

Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of ABTA – The Travel Association who will be delivering the opening remarks at Convention, said:

“While the Travel Convention has always been a forward-looking event, this year’s hybrid offering comes at a particularly critical time for us to discuss the future of our sector and how we can emerge better and stronger from the Coronavirus crisis.

“It also provides a much-needed opportunity for us to reconnect with our colleagues and forge new relationships which we’ve had limited chance to do so over the past 18 months. I’m very much looking forward to seeing our delegates in-person – and online – next week.”

Fees for ABTA Members and Partners are £155 for the online event and £295 for the in-person event, while non-Member fees are £255 to join online and £395 to join in-person.
Headline sponsors are Avis Budget Group; Global – the entertainment and media group; Royal Caribbean; Star Alliance; and Universal Partners FX.

For more information and to register, please visit www.thetravelconvention.com.

Notes to editors
ABTA has been a trusted travel brand for over 70 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers travel with confidence. The ABTA brand stands for support, protection and expertise. This means consumers have confidence in ABTA and a strong trust in ABTA Members. These qualities are core to us as they ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members.

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today's changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA has more than 4,300 travel brands in Membership, providing a wide range of leisure and business travel services, with a combined annual UK turnover of £39 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the British public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.