Leadership exchange: strategic questions for the next 20 years | News
With the Leadership Exchange, Phocuswright and ITB Berlin have created a new, exclusive dialogue format that deliberately goes beyond traditional conference formats. In a closed circle of leading decision makers from the travel industry, technology, investments and strategy, the focus was not on daily business operations, but on setting the structural course for the next two decades
The 90-minute meeting on Tuesday at CityCube Berlin brought together international industry representatives to discuss key issues for the future of the global travel industry. The starting point was the belief that tourism is at a strategic turning point: technological innovations – especially in the field of AI – changing market structures, geopolitical challenges and environmental conditions are fundamentally changing value creation, competition and responsibility.
Rather than focusing on short-term trends, the Leadership Exchange took a long-term view: where will value be created in an increasingly AI-mediated world? How can growth be made sustainable without endangering its own foundations? Who can be trusted – and who bears responsibility? And what strategic decisions do we need to make today to remain relevant and competitive in 2046?
At the start of the session, moderators Pete Comeau, Managing Director of Phocuswright, and Florence Kaci, Phocuswright’s Senior Director for EMEA, presented seven strategic questions, and participants collectively prioritized the four topics they considered most relevant for the next twenty years.
In interactive working groups, the participants examined the topics under different headings: ‘greatest opportunity’, ‘greatest risk’, ‘uncomfortable truth’ and ‘concrete priority for the next three years’.
The Leadership Exchange ultimately focused on the following four topics:
Who will have confidence in 2046?
Where is value in an AI-native industry?
Is traveling a right – or a privilege?
Is travel consolidating – or fragmenting?
The format was conducted under the confidentiality convention of the Chatham House Rule, under which information received can be used freely as long as the identity of the speaker is not revealed. The aim was to create strategic orientation in a phase of deep transformation and to identify concrete areas of action for the near future.
A composite summary of the Leadership Exchange’s key findings is currently being prepared and will be published in a report at the end of March.
With the Leadership Exchange, Phocuswright and ITB Berlin have purposefully created a protected space for strategic thinking, away from the distractions of the trade show, with the aim of shaping a travel industry that can face the next two decades in innovative, resilient and responsible ways.
