In June, I attended the Annual Conference of the International Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) together with my colleague Maria Pradissitto. We’ve had great conversations with DMO practitioners as well as academic researchers and also a lot of fun at the receptions: It was so fun to see a group of researches playing together in a band and doing a live concert!
I was impressed about the passion and dedication from DMO researchers that really embrace innovation and open conversations with a solid mix of people who belong to the most intelligent crowds in our industry. This conference was for me all about listening, learning and collaboration.
With the rise of new technology, the innovation curve has never been faster, where we can get (almost) realtime insights from travelers, such as travel inspiration and booking behavior aligned with spending and overall economic impact. This also spans beyond traditional metrics: it was interesting to see how we can start measuring KPIs in sustainable tourism, and how technology like artificial intelligence can help providing relevant insights to the right audience.
