Festival of senses highlights customer conference in France

These were a few of the hot topics explored at our recent customer gathering – which brought together top travel players from Central and South East Europe to sparkling Cannes. Lutz Vorneweg, (Director, Responsible for CESE (Central, Eastern, Southern Europe, Amadeus IT Group) opened the business agenda with an insight into the Amadeus vision and travel agencies world. He provided insight into the latest travel industry challenges and trends whilst focusing on the implications for the travel agency world today.

Following this, Francisco Pérez-Lozao Rüter, Senior Vice President, New Businesses, Amadeus IT Group continued the story line by expanding on the Amadeus vision and how together we can shape the future of the industry. At the heart of our vision is the will to create a collaborative and connected environment that will help all the stakeholders in the travel industry to service the traveller better throughout the travel journey.

The Traveller is at the very centre of everything the travel agency does, so a better understanding of their needs allows us to better serve their needs. On day one, we took the opportunity to share the latest results from the Amadeus Traveller Tribes 2030 report, shedding light on how our top travel players can shape their business strategies to prepare for future demands and leverage future trends.

Over the two day programme, we also invited the audience to review further pertinent industry topics with presentations on the latest travel agency perspective on air content and merchandising, a review on the latest studies regarding the world of corporate business and travellers and a crucial insight into the world of Mobile Solutions & m-commerce. Business concluded with a look at existing solutions and how they can better serve the travellers’ needs and offer similar or better services than the airlines.

With serious business also came some serious fun! We invited our guests on a sensory journey to discover how our senses shape our experience of the world. First there was a sightseeing tour of the world famous Cannes, followed by a welcome cocktail where guests captured their hand prints with ink in the spirit of festival film stars! On the Thursday afternoon, the sensorial journey continued with a visit to the historical International Perfume Museum, the only museum of its kind in the world, located in the iconic town of Grasse. Here, guests observed how a perfume is created to match a wearer’s social and cultural characteristics – not everyone is able to wear Jungle from Kenzo or Habit Rouge from Guerlain! To further tempt the senses, they were invited to participate in wine tasting and olive workshops, where guests were guided via their senses of smell, touch and vision to select the ideal pairing to personalise their cuisine experience.

The ‘bouquet final’ of this journey was the event dinner.  A masterfully crafted menu featuring local flowers was enhanced by the performance of two fantastic illusionists. They completely mesmerised our delegates and proved a big hit! The dinner concluded the festival of senses and provided the perfect high note to a very memorable event.