Under the theme of The Future of Travel, the conference component of ITB Asia 2017 will spotlight artificial intelligence and OTAs, as well as first-to-ITB Asia features such as a cruise panel and an innovation travel track.
Speakers for the first day’s keynote will include Tony Menezes, vice president of industrial and distribution sector at IBM Asia Pacific; Rob Torres, managing director of advertising and marketing at Google; and Jane Sun, CEO of Ctrip.
On the second day, the keynote panel will focus on the travel trends and market conditions and how OTAs are are transforming travel, particularly in South Korea, Japan and India. The panel will include Ike Anand, vice president at Expedia, Min Yoon, CEO of Tidesquare, Amit Taneja, chief revenue officer of Cleartrip, Ken Mishima, vice president of eCommerce Strategy at iJTB, and Jose Murta, global head of hospitality at trivago.
This year will also see ITB Asia introducing its first cruise panel, bringing together global cruise operators such as SkySea Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Princess Cruises, Carnival Asia and Royal Caribbean Cruises, with Christina Siaw, CEO of Singapore Cruise Centre, as moderator.
Another first is an innovation travel tech track hosted by Israeli startup InnoVel that will connect travel companies with startups. The cross-sharing is designed to address pains in areas such as revenue management, customer engagement and online marketing.
Hiverlab and Zebra Design will share their experiences on the opportunities for augmented reality and virtual reality in hospitality and tourism. Savioke, a Silicon Valley startup that makes autonomous indoor delivery robots, will also present key takeaways from its pilot project at M Social, Asia’s first deployment of front-of-house service robots.
ITB Asia will inaugurate a Corporate Day on October 26, with Global Business Travel Association, Egencia, Corporate Travel Management, UOB Travel and Airbnb delivering presentations and workshops.
MICE Day will return for the second edition on October 25.
ITB Asia 2017 will take place at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands from October 25 to 27.
