Hundreds of the world’s biggest names in travel gathered in Malta this week for the 26th edition of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit to discuss the challenges and opportunities the industry is facing.
Covering everything from luxury travel and longevity to the future airport experience and how destinations can grow sustainably, the panels gave an insight into what governments and businesses will be focusing on in the coming years.
Euronews Travel was reporting on the ground – here’s what you may have missed.
Justin Trudeau: Tourism is the best counter to an increasingly insular world
Canada’s former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was this year’s main speaker, joining WTTC President and CEO Gloria Guevara on stage to chat about “how to shape the opportunity ahead”.
Directly addressing the “Trump Slump”, Trudeau said in recent years “the US hasn’t been very good at making travellers feel welcome”.
He said: “There’s a tendency right now in countries around the world, and we’re seeing it to a greater or lesser extent in certain countries or governments, that are encouraging people to look inward, turn inward, to go a little more insular and be mistrustful or in opposition to the rest of the world. That’s not necessarily a productive path for the world, and the best counter to that is tourism.
“It’s getting to know people who are different. It’s wanting to travel, being curious about the world, being empathetic. These are the instincts that people need to be developing, and this is something that makes your industry so great.”
When pressed on which single destination Trudeau would recommend to visit in Canada, he suggested Montréal, his home city.
“Montrealers, we love good restaurants, we love good art. We fill our summers with festivals, in winter, it’s worth coming to see the snow,” he added.
You won’t need to use your passport to travel within the next five years
In a panel discussing the implementation of digital identity and changing the border experience, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said that passports will no longer be a necessity for travel within the next five years.
The barrier isn’t the technology, but a lack of coordination between the different systems that must be connected to make this happen, he added.
Panellists envisioned a future where travellers won’t need to use their passport when passing through borders, when collecting hire cars, or even checking in to hotels.
AI is already being used to plan holidays – the next stage is letting agents book your trip
Tourists across the globe are becoming “super-empowered travellers” by using AI to plan out their trips, according to Christie Travers-Smith, a director for EMEA Strategic Partnerships at Google Inc.
The next big step for AI? Building enough trust for customers to hand over their credit card information and allow AI agents to book for them.
While the luxury sector is leading the way, ‘longevity as standard’ is what all hotels should be aiming for
Bryan Johnson’s antics have brought longevity out of the fringe and into the mainstream in recent years, and luxury hotel groups have been paying attention, introducing things like hyperbaric oxygen therapy and infrared saunas.
But Tim Gray, the founder of Health Optimisation, argues that “longevity as standard” is what all hotel groups should be aiming for.
What that means is allowing travellers to stick to the basic principles of recovery – eating well, sleeping well, staying hydrated and staying active – even while away from home, and that starts from small things like adding black-out blinds and removing blinking lights, to ensuring that mini bars are stocked with healthier options.
All of the fancy tools are just meant to help “turbo charge” the basics. Having tried out HPO.TECH’s hyperbaric oxygen therapy for ourselves at the WTTC summit, we can certainly see how jet-lagged travellers could benefit.
Measuring success by value, rather than volume
For many years, the travel industry’s main measure for success was the number of tourists flowing into a destination.
Today, the indicators people are paying attention to are changing – governments are now shifting from “volume to value”, according to Michelle Fridman, Secretary of Tourism of Jalisco, Mexico.
“We are looking for those tourists that are better tourists, that stay for a longer period, that spend a bigger amount of money, that consume local products,” Fridman said during a panel on destination stewardship.
“More importantly, we are looking for those that respect and are interested in our identity.”
She added that Jalisco is “the most Mexican destination, and we want to keep it that way”.
It was a sentiment shared across the panellists, with Miguel Sanz, Director-General at Turespaña, saying that his role was now more of a “tourism curator”, with efforts being made to attract a different kind of traveller to Spain.
The idea was further explored on the “impact-oriented traveller” panel, with Mark Weingard, CEO & founder of Iniala, noting that it’s important for the industry to not become too focused on bringing in high-value travellers “because then we are almost being elitist” and “saying only the wealthy can travel”.
“At the same time, I think it’s very important that we position travel that it benefits the cities that it’s in, that it doesn’t destroy the culture, it doesn’t destroy the neighbourhoods and that we are making sure that the work that we are doing in hospitality actually gives back to the community,” he added.