CHINA’s economy is the next big disruptor to watch, warned Richard Fenning, CEO of New York-based global risk consultancy Control Risks, at WTTC Summit 2015, which kicked off yesterday under the theme of Disruption & Reinvention.
The biggest risk, he said, was the Chinese government’s management of the economy and whether it can successfully oversee the market’s transformation from a reliance on large-scale investment to Chinese consumption and spending on domestic goods and services instead.
Unlike other “containable” geopolitical risks such as the problems in the Middle East and Russia, Fenning warned that an unsuccessful transition in China would derail the economic recovery being seen in the US and Europe, due to the interdependence of the global economy.
But he believes China is going to be successful as it has “the most confident people running the place”.
Travel and tourism companies meanwhile were deemed successful in managing disruptions and were urged to continue reinventing themselves in the face of disarrangements.
The industry has shown that it “thrives on disruption”, said David Scowsill, WTTC president & CEO.
“Observers have prematurely announced the demise of charter airlines, tour operators, leisure travel consultants and global distribution systems – all of which have not only survived but thrived,” Scowsill pointed out.
Doug Anderson, president and CEO of Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), said the two areas that caused the most disruption to his business were the eurozone crisis, which curtailed business travel spending, and socio-politics including terrorism, political crises and health epidemics.
The former, however, boosted the need for travel spend management while the latter sent CWT reinventing safety and security processes for its clients’ travellers on the road.
Gary Chapman, president group services & DNATA, Emirates Group, said the word ‘disruption’ suggested something unusual when it was in reality “nothing of that sort”, rattling off all the crises the industry has had to fend off each year for many years in the recent past.
“Leadership must be resilient and mentally tough,” said Chapman.
