Counting Down to ITB Asia 2020 Virtual

By Katrina Leung, Managing Director, Messe Berlin (Singapore)

We’re counting down to ITB Asia 2020 Virtual later this week, and I could not be prouder of my team who have worked tirelessly to make this year’s event come to life, albeit virtually. Hosting a virtual event is no small feat, a lot of work has gone in to developing ITB Community.

ITB Asia 2020 Virtual

The theme for ITB Asia 2020 Virtual is Reinventing Travel in the New Normal. The agenda will feature over 100 themed sessions over the course of three-days. It has been specially curated to help our travel industry peers navigate through the current challenges as we prepare for the industry’s recovery, with keynote sessions this year highlighting the emerging trends the travel industry.

ITB Asia has always been known for its stellar line-up of keynote speakers and this year will be no different. Our speakers will be addressing industry best practice, business innovations, industry know-how and professional tips on how to adopt the mindset of industry leaders when navigating through challenges. Without further ado, I would like to take this opportunity to share more about our keynote speakers and industry heavyweights:

Leaders in Travel and Tourism

Photo of Keynote theatre taken at ITB Asia 2019

Alexandre de Juniac, the Director General & CEO at International Air Transport Association (IATA) will expand more in his C-Suite talk on restoring confidence in air travel after the COVID-19 shutdown.
Angel Llull Mancas is the Vice President & Managing Director, Asia Pacific at Booking.com. His session will highlight how we can stay agile and continue to leverage the power of innovation to respond to the new realities and customer behaviours that have emerged during this pandemic.
Anita Mendiratta, Special Advisor to Secretary General at The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) will share fresh insights on how we can rebuild the travel for economic, social, cultural and environmental growth and development.
Axel Hefer, Managing Director & CEO at trivago’s session will explore what it is like to travel and do business in travel, in the new normal.
Ben Drew, President at Viator. Together with Kristin Dorsett, the Vice-President of Supply at Viator and Shiyi Tay, the Manager of Business Planning at Tour East Group, the session will share key traveller insights from the past year, and the actions we can take to reinvigorate experiences for the new traveller’s journey.
Deep Kalra is the Founder and Group Executive Chairman at MakeMyTrip. During his session, he will share about the impacts and challenges brought about by COVID-19 and the lifelong learnings for business leaders of organisations, no matter how big or small.
Hermione Joye, is the Sector Lead, Travel and Vertical Search APAC at Google. This session will highlight emerging trends that travel companies should consider when navigating the road ahead, paired with insightful data and analysis.
James Thornton, the CEO at Intrepid Travel will reveal the game-changing mindsets and practices that have emerged from the pandemic—the differentiating factors for successful tours and activities businesses.
Maribel Rodriguez is the Senior Vice President, Membership & Commercial at World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). Her session will explore the various trends in travel and tourism that have emerged from the pandemic, the implications of these trends and how industry players are responding. More importantly, she will also touch on recovering from the millions of jobs impacted and how to build resilience for the future.

Photo of Corporate Travel theatre taken at ITB Asia 2019

Conference Tracks

Each year, our team works hard to ensure that attendees can easily navigate the event’s agenda to select the sessions that will be of most use to them and their objectives. That’s why our agenda is divided up into 7 unique conference tracks, each designed to help address topics we know those in the industry want to hear about. This year’s streams are as follows:

Corporate Travel
MICE Show Asia
Travel Tech Asia
Destination Marketing
Tours, Attractions and Activities
Hotel Revenue and Distribution
Air Travel

As ITB Asia 2020 Virtual draws closer, we’re looking forward to welcoming our friends, peers and new connections once again. To join us and be part of the discussions happening during show days, make sure you have signed up to the ITB Community: http://www.itb-community.com/itb-asia-2020-virtual/.

For more information, you can visit http://bit.ly/ITBAsia2020ConferenceAgenda.