One week to go until the 2015 Convention in Costa Navarino

Excitement is growing as 500 delegates prepare to head to The Travel Convention in Costa Navarino, a luxury resort in the southwest Peloponnese. Two speakers have just been added to the “Power to the People” main stage session on Tuesday: Hugo Jenkins, Head of Global Sales, onefinestay and David Trunkfield, Partner, PwC, completing a powerful and expert line up.

The Convention will kick off in style on Monday 12 October with a spectacular Welcome Party in the historic town of Pylos hosted by the Region of Peloponnese. Delegates will be treated to a pageant of Greek culture and history, local cuisine, folk dancing and traditional musical entertainment, ensuring a warm welcome to the Peloponnese.

This year’s business sessions are themed around “Risk and Resilience”, and will address the best ways to plan for and to offset risks to ensure the continued success of the travel industry and individual businesses. Highlights on the first day include: respected economist Justin Urquhart Stewart giving his predictions in view of the ongoing issues in the Eurozone; Professor Ian Goldin on the impact of Globalisation, and Ruairidh Roberts, Industry Head for Travel, Google, on “Living in a Borderless World”. Day two will see inspirational speaker Professor Eddie Obeng explain how to make “Order out of Chaos” and author and rock climber Andrew St George talk about how to respond to the unforeseen. Delegates will then be able to attend various interactive workshops. The full event programme can be found here.

Alongside the business sessions, networking events are one of the main attractions of the Travel Convention and there will be plenty of opportunities to catch up with industry peers and meet new faces. Networking highlights include a delegate football match, Meet the Media event, a nightly Convention bar and the Host Party on Tuesday night, sponsored by the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), where a few surprises have been promised to make this a party to remember.

Mark Tanzer, ABTA, Chief Executive said “There are only a few days to go until The Travel Convention and it looks set to be a fantastic event with a great list of delegates and speakers. We have attracted an extremely high calibre of speakers to do justice to the incredible facilities on offer at Costa Navarino and our thanks go out in advance to our hosts, the Region of Peloponnese, and our co-hosts, the GNTO, as well as all of our UK sponsors, for making the Convention possible. I look forward to meeting up with delegates to discuss industry issues and how businesses can thrive in a fluid and dynamic world, as well as enjoying the fabulous Greek hospitality provided.”