World on stage

World Travel Market, the leading global event covering aviation, hotels, sports, tourism, responsible tourism, blogging, social media and travel technology will be in its 37th year when it begins in London on November 7, 2016. The event provides a unique opportunity for the whole global travel trade to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business. This year over 150 participants will arrive from the Middle East region alone. The UK is a very important market for the UAE and experts in the travel trade are working at increasing their feeder markets.

The Travel Tech Show at WTM is the UK’s largest travel technology event, and the fastest growing one at WTM London. The show brings together the latest products and services in technology to the global travel industry. This year, the event has high-profile names from the technology and travel industry, including Pegasus Solutions, DerbySoft, and Open Destinations.

Emergence of technology in travel, tourism and hospitality has brought forth a variety of clientele from leisure to business. Traveller trends keep changing at a rapid pace alongside travel technology. The players must be prepared to adapt to these various changes ensuring that the game plan will consist all aspects.

According to the latest Global Passenger Survey report by IATA, more passengers are looking for technology to improve their travel experience. Some of the key findings revealed that passengers want to be able to do more of the traditional airport processes ‘off airport’ by taking advantage of the latest digital selfservice options. In 2016, the percentage of passengers who checked in online and used a mobile boarding pass rather than a printed one increased to 71 per cent from 69 per cent in 2015.

We are heading into a new era of travel, tourism and hospitality but are all stakeholders ready to handle this new scenario? The role of the travel agent is changing rather rapidly; and they would soon need to adapt and ensure to act more like a travel consultant.