WTM London, the world’s most influential travel event, organised by RX, is framing this year’s Technology Summit around the critical role that technology can play supporting sellers and suppliers during the current period of disruption and emerging new challenges.
The summit takes place on Wednesday 5 November on the Purple Stage, starting at 10.45am. Over three hours, attendees will hear from a global line-up of carefully selected technology experts, from C-suite executives to entrepreneurs via lawyers, investors and researchers.
The agenda supports WTM London’s decision to align all stages and sessions under the unifying theme of Reimagining Travel in a Changing World. Twelve different sessions have been curated by Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, WTM’s technology advisor and an established industry commentator and observer. He was a founding management team member at Expedia in the 1990s, and he is currently a Principal at T2Impact Ltd, a global consulting and venture firm laser-focussed on aviation, travel and tourism.
WTM London’s official Technology Partner, Holafly, will feature CEO Pablo Gómez Fernandez-Quintanilla in a dynamic 20-minute conversation with Timothy, titled ‘Connected Futures: Tech, Data and the Power of eSIMs.’ The session will take place on Wednesday, 5th November at 13:50 on the Purple Stage. One of the highlights is a debate around whether artificial intelligence (AI), despite the hype, is travel’s enemy. He will be joined on stage by Stephen Joyce from Prospect Group and Christian Watts from Magpie Travel.
AI is likely to be referenced across the sessions, directly and indirectly. Rhys Griffiths and Farina Azam, partners at travel law specialists Fox Williams, will outline the legal and regulatory implications of widespread AI adoption for travel businesses.
Meanwhile, Andreas Nau from Ennea Capital Partners and Min Liu from Cambon Partners will share their frontline experience of how the investment community is responding to the new reality of AI-driven disruption.
There is also a session drilling down into how AI is redefining the role of travel agents, featuring James Lever from DataArt and Gulce Rozenveld from Oojo.com. Similarly, AI is driving a sea-change in trip planning and inspiration, with video content becoming increasingly important in the traveller’s decision-making process. Sally Bunnell from NaviSavi will explain more.
Data is an important area of discussion in the age of AI. Dave Goodger from Tourism Economics will explain how travel companies can combine travel-specific insights with economic indicators to make smarter decisions. Elsewhere, Thomas Dillon from A3M and James Spalding from Trip.com Group will discuss how to balance the traveller demand for hyper-personalization with regulatory requirements over data privacy and security.
Payments remain an area of interest and innovation, and this year’s summit includes a session looking at how technology-driven payment innovations are helping travel to thrive. James Lemon from Stripe, Will Plummer from Trust My Group, Livia Vite from actuary.aero and Qais Amori from Almosafer will offer different perspectives on the overall payment landscape, looking at business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer.
Airlines are starting to have a stronger presence at WTM London in general and at the Technology Summit in particular. Filip Filipov from OAG will provide a five-minute snapshot into the most critical airline and flight data trends before Amanda Campbell from T2RL and Nadine Wood, formerly of Qantas, analyse the evolution of low-cost carriers and highlight the lessons that legacy carriers can learn.
Finally, away from software, Roman Townsend from Belvera Partners will demonstrate the latest advances in artificial and virtual reality.
Timothy O-Neil Dunne explained: “Attendees will hear from an eclectic mix of experts, all of whom have strong and sometimes differing opinions on the topics dominating today’s travel technology conversations.
“We’re taking a broad approach to AI, but I’ve structured the summit so that data, payments, airlines and more also get a look in. Then we finish with the key question of now: is AI good or bad for travel? Make sure you join us on the Purple Stage at 10:45 on Wednesday 5th November to be part of a frank and future-focused conversation.”
ENDS
For all media enquiries, additional comment and request for interview please contact
Becca Krug and Evie Nicholls at Davies Tanner:
Tel: +44 (0)1892 619100
wtmpr@daviestanner.com
Notes to Editors
World Travel Market (WTM) Portfolio comprises of leading travel events and online portals across four continents. The events are Arabian Travel Market, WTM London, WTM Latin America and WTM Africa.
WTM London is the world’s most influential travel and tourism event for the international leisure l travel community. The show is the ultimate destination for those seeking a macro view of the travel industry and a deeper understanding of the forces shaping it. WTM London is where influential travel leaders, buyers and high-profile travel companies gather to exchange ideas, drive innovation, and accelerate business outcomes.
Next event: 4 to 6 November 2025 at ExCel London.
Arabian Travel Market (ATM), is the leading, international travel and tourism event in the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals. ATM 2024 welcomed over 47,000 attendees and hosted over 30,000 visitors, including more than 2,600 exhibitors and representatives from over 161 countries, across 10 halls at Dubai World Trade Centre. Arabian Travel Market is part of Arabian Travel Week. #ATMDubai
Next event: 4 to 6 May 2026, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai
https://www.wtm.com/atm/en-gb.html
Arabian Travel Week is a festival of events taking place from 28 April, within and alongside Arabian Travel Market 2024. Providing a renewed focus for the Middle East’s travel and tourism sector, it includes Influencers’ events, GBTA Business Travel Forums, as well as ATM Travel Tech. It also features the ATM Buyer Forums, as well as a series of country forums.
Arabian Travel Week is a 10-day long festival of travel and tourism events that take place in Dubai. All eyes are on the city, as Dubai invites the international travel industry to come together each year and take part in the events so that we can shape the future of travel together. The travel events that are part of Arabian Travel Week include ATM Start Up Competition, ATM Travel Tech, GBTA Business Travel Forums and Buyer Networking.
https://www.wtm.com/arabian-travel-week/en-gb.html
WTM Latin America is held annually in São Paulo and attracts more than 29,000 tourism professionals and almost 800 exhibiting companies during the three-day event. The event offers a qualified content combined with networking and business opportunities. In its latest edition, in 2024, WTM Latin America kept its focus on effective business generation and was able to schedule in advance six thousand meetings that were held between buyers, travel agents and exhibitors.
WTM Latin America contents are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Next event: 14 to 16 April 2026 – Expo Center Norte, SP, Brazil
WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. The event welcomes 6,000 travel industry professionals to Africa’s leading and only business to business (B2B) exhibition for both the inbound and outbound African travel and tourism markets.
Next event: 13 to 15 April 2026 – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town http://africa.wtm.com/
About ATW Connect: Africa Travel Week’s digital arm, is a virtual hub packed to the seams with interesting content, industry news and insights, and the opportunity to hear from experts on a variety of topics in our new monthly webinar series. All with the aim to keep all of us in the travel and tourism industry connected. ATW Connect focuses on inbound and outbound markets for general leisure tourism, luxury travel, LGBTQ+ travel and the MICE/business travel sector as well as travel technology.
WTM Global Hub, is the WTM Portfolio online portal created to connect and support travel industry professionals around the world. The resource hub offers the latest guidance and knowledge to help exhibitors, buyers and others in the travel industry face the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic. WTM Portfolio is tapping into its global network of experts to create content for the hub. https://hub.wtm.com/
About RX
RX is a global leader in events and exhibitions, leveraging industry expertise, data, and technology to build businesses for individuals, communities, and organisations. With a presence in 25 countries across 42 industry sectors, RX hosts approximately 350 events annually. RX is committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all our people. RX empowers businesses to thrive by leveraging data-driven insights and digital solutions. RX is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, visit www.rxglobal.com.
About RELX
RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. RELX serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs more than 36,000 people over 40% of whom are in North America. The shares of RELX PLC, the parent company, are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York stock exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX.
*Note: Current market capitalisation can be found at http://www.relx.com/investors
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