The World’s Leading Travel Trade Show was back for the first time after the pandemic as an exclusively B2B event and confirmed its standing as the leading platform of the global travel industry.
Over the three business days a total of 90,127 attendees from more than 180 countries were in Berlin. For ITB Berlin, the ITB Buyers‘ Circle with its 1,300 members was also an impressive success. Membership of this exclusive circle was limited to leading travel industry buyers. Their sales volume increased noticeably, and international participation grew from 50 per cent in 2019 to 70 per cent overall. The international nature and diversity of the approximately 5,500 exhibitors from 161 countries was equally impressive. ITB Berlin also attracted considerable media attention, with around 3,000 media members and 333 travel bloggers and high-profile international political figures at the event.
At ITB Berlin the industry agreed that 2023 could become a record year – people’s desire for travel is back in many parts of the world. Only the Asia-Pacific region is lagging somewhat behind – due among other reasons to China opening up its borders late.
The ITB Berlin Convention with high-profile figures attending offered wide-ranging orientation on specialist subjects. At 18 theme tracks, 400 internationally recognised top speakers took part in a total of 200 sessions and discussed highly pressing topics as well as current trends including digitalisation, Artificial intelligence and the skills shortage. Under the heading ’Mastering Transformation’, experts presented ways to turn the pressing global challenges facing the industry into opportunities. A total of 24,000 attendees visited the lectures, panels and discussions at the leading international thinktank of the travel industry.
Notwithstanding the joy and euphoria following the global recovery of the markets, the industry also agreed that having overcome the pandemic it now faced enormous challenges. Prior to the pandemic criticism had already been mounting that “business as before “would no longer really be possible and that growth could only be achieved by taking all aspects of sustainability into account. Socially responsible tourism has long been on the agenda of the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show. This year it again offered a wide range of panel discussions, seminars and lectures, in order among other things to raise awareness for social responsibility in tourism. The Equality in Tourism Award, presented for the first time on International Women’s Day at ITB Berlin 2023, aims to draw global attention to gender equality in tourism. Three candidates made the final – the award went to the tour operator Travel Excellence from Costa Rica, followed by Adventure Women from the USA and Etur from Ecuador.
The next ITB Berlin will take place from March 5 to 7 (Tuesday to Thursday) 2024 on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds.
DUETTO ADVANCE UNVEILED
REVENUE management software Duetto unveiled its premium revenue optimisation product, Duetto Advance, at ITB Berlin.
“Duetto Advance enables hotel revenue teams to optimise rates in real-time, using clean, usable data delivered in a visually actionable dashboard customisable to your revenue strategy needs. This is truly an industry first for our field,” said Darren Koch, Chief Product Officer, Duetto.
“In today’s ever-changing market, real-time analytics that ingests market data as it happens is vital for hotels to complete and lead their markets,” Koch added.
“By incorporating intelligent event data into Duetto’s revenue management platform, we are unlocking a new way for businesses to make data-driven pricing decisions that optimise revenue and enhance customer experiences ahead of surges in demand. By using enriched event data to surface relevant, impactful events, it enables them to optimise and make calculated decisions around pricing in advance to match real-world conditions. Our system not only collects, enriches, and verifies millions of events every year, but it also provides sophisticated features which companies like Duetto can leverage to paint a complete picture of demand,” said Campbell Brown, Co-founder & CEO, PredictHQ.