Well done, Perth, for hosting such a fantastic WTTC Global Summit this week. From the impact of AI to sustainability, each session featured conversations about the future of the tourism industry. Margy Osmond, the CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum Australia, provided this feedback.
Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF) is the peak industry group for the Australian tourism, transport and aviation sectors. A national, member-funded CEO forum TTF advocates the public policy interests of leading corporations and institutions in these sectors.
Margy may not have been at the WTTC’s Global Summit 2018 in Buenos Aires. This summit made a powerful impact when more than 1,300 delegates from 50 countries attended, including more than 30 high-level government officials from across the globe.
This was likely not the case at the just-concluded WTTC summit in Perth, Australia. There was little publicity leading up to the event, and also during the summit.
WTTC promised delegates:
Western Australia, with its stunning natural beauty and deep commitment to sustainability and cultural diversity, is the perfect backdrop for this event. Hosting the Global Summit in Perth enables us to pioneer new ideas for tourism while honouring the rich traditions and ancient heritage of the land.
Perth lived up to its expectation, and was seen an excellent host, but lost a good opportunity in not showcasing its Western Australian destination, except to busy tourism executives attending the event.
Press coverage both locally and internationally about the WTTC Summit was hardly found.
Photos provided to eTurboNews showed a thin participation. It may be the reason WTTC did not provide relevant media updates, and has not responded to questions.
Tripadvisor CEO, Matt Goldberg, revealed global travel trends and the potential impact of AI on our future wanderlust plans. The WTTC revealed that business travel will surpass pre-pandemic levels this year. It’s unclear what action this message actually triggered .
Last year, holiday travel only fell by 2.9% compared to 2019, while business travel fell by 5.4%. Business leaders attending WTTC in Perth re-emphasize the importance of face-to-face interaction and indicate the felt business travel is now back and is predicted to surpass the level of 2019 levels by 6.2% with a new record of $1.5 trillion Dollar volume.
According to the WTTC 2024 Economic Impact Trends Report, available for GBP 249,00, business travel expenditure in the U.S. accounted for 30% of the total global number in 2019. It is expected to reach $472 billion this year or 13.4% above the country’s record in 2019.
In China, the world’s second-largest market for business travel, spending is expected to grow 13.1% above 2019, reaching nearly US$21 billion.
The business travel expenditure in Germany, the third-largest economy for business travel was set to reach US$87.5 billion, just under 1% above the 2019 peak. Business travel in the UK and France is expected to inject a record of US$84.1 billion and US$42.1 billion into each country’s economy.
“After a few challenging years, business travel returned to its path and recovered much faster than expected. It highlighted the importance of international travel for businesses around the world”, was the message by WTTC President & CEO Julia Simpson at the summit.
At the 24th Global Summit in Perth, Australia, Saudia Arabia’s Deputy Tourism Minister for International Affairs, Sultan Al Musallam, met with international tourism leaders to promote the Kingdom’s achievements and future plans for building the sector.
Other speakers at the summit included Greg O’Hara, Founder & Senior manager of Certate. WTTC member Jane Sun, CEO of China-based trip.com must have been glad to talk about the new relevance Pacific Islands will play in future tourism landscape.
Many of these small island states, such as the Kingdom of Tonga or Nauru, received high loans from the People’s Republic of China, and repayments equal more than 4% of their GDP. Tourism will be a welcome business to keep paying their debts to China. In the meantime those countries are opening their huge territorial waters in the Pacific Ocean to China for commerce and military.
Dan Richards, a major Sponsor at numerous WTTC summits, was again on the speaker list. He is the founder and CEO of Global Rescue. This US-based company sells high-priced memberships to travelers to get access to virtual medical assistance, intelligence and helicopter rescue to mostly business travelers. Some of those buying their high-priced policies think they are purchasing travel insurance when, in fact, they don’t.
Robert Irwin, Photographer and Conservationist at Australia Zoo, and Audrey Hendley, President of American Express Travel, also spoke.
The key presentation and photo-op star of the event was former US Secretary of State John Kerry. In a fireside chat, Secretary Kerry shared his insights into facilitating international cooperation for a more resilient & sustainable future.
In 2019 former president Obama was the keynote speaker at a spectacular WTTC summit. It came with a high price of several hundred thousands. The cost for Secretary John Kerry to take the photo with WTTC CEO Julia Simpson has not yet been disclosed.
Without wanting to be named a news anchor for a major international network tole eTN receently, that WTTC lost relevance.
This was in line when eTN talked to a current WTTC member who said there were about 30 unhappy members in WTTC, suggesting the organization urgently needed fresh leadership. None of them attended the event in Australia.
The need for global leadership in tourism politics are becoming more and more obvious.
