PR No.: PR15071

Destination management organisations are re-evaluating their structures and strategies to adapt to new market trends created by social media and new business models, such as the so called “sharing economy” and the growing  empowering of consumers.

Moderated by CNN journalist Richard Quest, Tourism Ministers and private sector leaders from around the world will discuss Destination Branding: new challenges in a changing market.
 

The 2015 edition of the UNWTO/WTM Ministers’ Summit will focus on:

• What makes a successful destination brand in today’s globalised media landscape?
• The links between nation branding and destination branding
• The role of social media and consumers’ engagement in destination branding
• Reputation management and crisis communication
• The changing role of destination marketing organisations; and  
• The contribution of the creative economy to destination branding

Confirmed speakers include;

• Nikolina Angelkova, Minister of Tourism, Bulgaria
• Mauricio Ventura Aragón, Minister of Tourism, Costa Rica
• Darko Lorencin, Minister of Tourism, Croatia
• Nicolas Petrovic, Chief Executive Officer, Eurostar International
• Noah Tratt, Global Senior Vice President, Expedia, Inc.
• Lee McCabe, Global Head of Travel, Facebook
• Nayef H. Al-Fayez, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Jordan
• Edward Zammit Lewis, Minister of Tourism, Malta
• Magali Silva, Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Peru
• Issa Mohammed Al Mohannadi, Chairman, Qatar Tourism Authority, Qatar
• Frantisek Palko, State Secretary, Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development, Slovakia
• Derek Hanekon, Minister of Tourism, South Africa
• Walter Mzembi, Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Zimbabwe
   

The discussion will be further enriched by the participation of more than 150 Ministers and aides poised to attend the event.

“The rise of the new technologies, coupled with the global economic downturn, has brought a paradigm shift as power moves from governments to citizens and from companies to consumers. This change is having a huge impact in the tourism sector and both destinations and companies need to adjust to new challenges”, said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai.

World Travel Market London, Senior Director, Simon Press, said: “The UNWTO and WTM Ministers’ Summit is a fixture in the calendar for ministers and private sector to debate the key issues facing the industry. Destination branding is becoming even more complex challenge as consumers empowered by new business models such as the sharing economy and social media have an impact on a destination’s brand and reputation. I am delighted WTM is again able to facilitate such an important conversation.”

Now in its ninth year, the UNWTO/WTM Ministers’ Summit is part of the World Travel Market London Ministerial Programme, bringing together Tourism Ministers and leading tourism experts to debate each year key issues affecting the sector.

Useful links:

UNWTO and WTM Ministers´ Summit 

Contacts:

UNWTO Media Officer Rut Gomez Sobrino
Tel: (+34) 91 567 81 60

UNWTO Communications & Publications Programme

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218

World Travel Market London

World Travel Market London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.

Almost 51,500 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL - London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM London.

WTM London, now in its 36th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.

WTM London 2015 will generate around £2.5 billion of travel industry contracts.

World Travel Market

World Travel Market is comprised of the leading leisure travel events in the world; WTM London, WTM Latin America in Sao Paulo, WTM Africa in Cape Town and Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.

New events for 2016 are WTM connect Asia and WTM connect China, which join WTM connect Ski and International Golf Travel Market. These unique one-to-one events are targeted at leisure and niche travel markets, allowing exhibitors to exclusively meet with elite hosted buyers.

The World Travel Market events are attended by the global travel and tourism industry’s senior executives to conduct business deals and discover the latest research, insight and opinion.

In 2014, World Travel Market events facilitated around $7 billion in industry deals from negotiations between the more than 15,000 buyers, 9,500 exhibitors (1,500 main stand holders and 8,000 stand sharers) in attendance of its four events. WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions.

Reed Travel Exhibitions

Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading travel and tourism events organiser, with a wide-ranging portfolio of 22 international events in 13 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa. Its market-leading, business-to-business events cover all elements of travel and tourism, including leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, events, incentives and business travel, as well as golf and ski travel.

RTE is part of Reed Exhibitions. www.reedtravelexhibitions.com

About Reed Exhibitions

Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organiser, with over 500 events in 43 countries. In 2014 Reed brought together over seven million event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 41 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of the RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.