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LONDON -- 24th April 2018
This April, Tourism Ireland led a global, industry-facing conference to discuss how the travel and tourism sector should respond to exponential change. The event attracted over 200 guests and featured world class speakers, including Gerd Leonhard, author of 'Technology vs. Humanity’.
As Tourism Ireland’s strategic digital partner since 2010, Hugo & Cat played a prominent role in the event. Strategy Director Simon Nash presented a talk on the technologies shaping travel and tourism and moderated an open space workshop with attendees to explore the theme of competition.
Simon Nash comments, “Technology has already redefined the way the travel and tourism industry goes to market. Yet many of the business fundamentals remain relatively untouched. Whilst the direction of change is far from certain, the next wave of innovation is set to disrupt the way businesses in the sector operate, as well as how they market themselves. Travel and tourism businesses needn’t worry about becoming technology specialists but they will need to invest in their people to ensure their business is fit for the future. For it’s only by embracing new ways of thinking that today’s travel and tourism businesses will be able to thrive in a marketplace increasingly shaped by technology-led innovation.”
Other topics included the future customer, the growing importance of data, and the changing role of destination marketing organisations. The full outcomes will be made available in a White Paper which will be published later this year.
The conference forms part of a wider body of consulting work Hugo & Cat is undertaking with the Tourism Ireland global leadership team to establish the future direction of Ireland.com - the overseas digital marketing platform.
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