Brisbane Global Café conversation about the future of global travel

‘Tourism’s New Frontiers’ was one of the 4 themes at the Brisbane Global Café 2014 in conjunction with the G20 event held this week in Brisbane, Australia. It is a new concept for G20 host cities aiming to enrich the G20 experience with a program that deepens the global conversation and champions the issues of importance to the host city. The event drew key travel industry players and experts from around the globe, including Amadeus, to lead the global discussion on the future development of tourism. It was very exciting for us in Amadeus in Australia to be co-sponsoring the event and enhance our relationships with global and local industry leaders.

There was a lot to learn during these two days:

·    It was really striking to understand how massive, complex and multi-layered the global tourism market

·    How fast we have to adapt to new changes that we are facing every day and how important it is to plan sustainably to guarantee healthy business processes.

·    How to service the massive growth in a sustainable way. In Australia alone, the tourism industry is currently worth $35 billion per year to the economy and we are witnessing a record number of overseas travel arrivals, especially from Asia. ·    

How to tailor travel products and services to be unique to enduring cultural differences in the destinations regardless of globalisation. Have you noticed how many aspects of cities have started to look the same?

·    There are new and exciting techniques such as Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) that can assist in listening to social media and targeting your message selectively to the audience. What’s next!

·    I listened to presentations in the other café themes ‘Improving Human Life’, ‘Powering Future Economies’, ‘The Digital Age’ and ‘Cities of the Future’. I soon realised how relevant all these issues are to our industry and how important it is to c ollaborate with other potential stakeholders outside the tourism industry. The tourism industry has a massive ripple effect on the community and we should recognise and learn that travel is an experience within the context of a community. We should encourage the concept of good hosts and good guests.

For me, one of the most exciting findings of the café was how our industry is full of passionate, dedicated, innovative experts. Local and global heroes who are driving our industry forward and ‘shaping the future of travel’ with Amadeus!

Congratulations to Brisbane for the thought leadership. We hope the global café is open at the 2015 G20 in Turkey so we can continue this very important conversation, increase our collaboration and create fresh new ideas for sustainable growth of the travel industry.