New Trends in Tourism

Doug Lansky has been living abroad and traveling for the last nearly 20 years in over 120 countries. He is the author of 10 books, including 2 for Lonely Planet and 3 for Rough Guides, had a weekly syndicated travel column in over 40 newspapers for five years, hosted a Travel Channel show, served as a correspondent for Public Radio’s Savvy Traveler show, served as travel editor for Scandinavian Airlines inflight magazine for three years and contributed to publications such as National Geographic Traveler, Reader’s Digest, Esquire, Men’s Journal, The Guardian, National Geographic Adventure, Huffington Post and Skift. On the speaking circuit, Doug has given acclaimed lectures at nearly 100 universities, spoken to a sold-out audience at National Geographic Headquarters, for the United Nations World’s Tourism Organization, as an after-dinner speaker at corporate events and at both public and industry travel/tourism conferences, at TEDx Stockholm, and set the attendance record for keynote lectures at the 2012 and 2013 ITB Berlin conferences.

Eran Ketter (PhD) is an acclaimed tourism advisor and keynote speaker, the Head of Research in a COVID-19 recovery project for the European Travel Commission, a former marketing advisor of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, and the co-author of the world-renowned books: “Media Strategies for Marketing Places in Crisis" and "Tourism Marketing for Developing Countries". In recent years he worked globally as a trainer and consultant, and shared his professional insights at the ITB Berlin, UNWTO’s seminar on mobile technologies, TEDx Tourism Tel Aviv, and leading tourism events in over 20 countries. 

Rob Davidson is the Managing Director of MICE Knowledge, a consultancy specialising in research, education and training services for the meetings and events industry. His main areas of expertise are conferences and incentive travel, and he has written seven books on these themes, including his latest publication, Business Events (https://www.routledge.com/Business-Events/Davidson/p/book/9781138735767). He has carried out research projects for a number of major organisations including the Poland Convention Bureau, the Ireland National Tourism Development Authority, and the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence.
He is regularly invited to speak at international conferences on themes linked to business events, in particular to present the results of his ongoing research into conference industry trends. Rob also teaches as a Visiting Professor in four European universities, where he educates and inspires Events Management and Tourism Management students every year. In 2015, he was awarded a Doctorate from the University of Greenwich for his thesis, entitled ‘Technological and Demographic Factors as Agents of Change in the Development of Business Events’. In 2016, he won the Best Conference Speaker award at the Global Event Awards. In 2017, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the IBTM WORLD exhibition in Barcelona.

Manolis has rich experience in working with tourism boards and DMOs. As a consultant, he has powered destination authorities to achieve success and innovation in areas such as strategic planning & management support, place marketing and digital tourism strategies, product development and experience design, and EU-funded tourism-related programs.

Manolis is the founder and Managing Director of TOPOSOPHY (previously Aboutourism). Over the last decade TOPOSOPHY has approached tourism destination management and marketing through the lens of both visitors and locals. Such a perspective was driven by Manolis’s previous tenure as Director of Tourism Development in the Athens Tourism and Economic Development Co, the first DMO in Greece, and has evolved since 2010 through back to back projects with the City of Athens and strategic partners under the brand ‘This Is Athens’.
Since 2010, TOPOSOPHY’s focus on place-making concepts and the wide scope of visitor economy has created added value for 25+ DMOs and industry organizations in Greece and around the globe. In 2017-2018, Manolis guided the compilation of 3 seminal reports for European Cities Marketing and HOTRE, focusing on the future role of DMOs and a series of solutions they should be keen to consider in the light of overtourism issues across Europe.

Manolis’s international experience includes programmes and consultancies in the UK, Italy, Portugal, France, Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, Russia, Mexico, Greece and Australia, among others. He is also a founding and honorary member of the International Place Branding  to organizations including the European Trade Association of Hotels & Restaurants (HOTREC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), European Cities Marketing (ECM), Greek Tourism Confederation and Marketing Greece S.A.
 

With a background in digital marketing in the tourism industry of more than a decade, Nick is one of the tourism industry’s leading experts within the destination marketing space. As founder of the Digital Tourism Think Tank (#DTTT), the leading platform connecting destinations worldwide on topics around digital trends and transformation, Nick has worked with hundreds of destinations helping to navigate the complexities of an increasingly digital visitor experience. Through his work heading up the #DTTT, Nick has led the industry to think about the importance of digital transformation and the impact of the ‘always on’ visitor, the multi-touchpoint path to purchase and the need for organisations to think differently about their approach. ​Nick is a sought after keynote speaker with hundreds of engagements to his name, speaking extensively at industry and digital conferences all over the world.

An architect who chose to design sentences and stories not buildings. An actor who chose conferences and workshops over theatre stages and a psychologist whose mission is to help people communicate better. An academic teacher at WSB, USWPS, SGH and Leon Koźmiński Academy. A proud National Geographic Learning Ambassador and book author. For the past 18 years has helped companies and startups hone their message using cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Puts theory to test working with teams in Austria, Australia, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Poland. Constantly learns to update his system. 

Łukasz Wysocki. Chairman of the Board of Gdansk Tourism Organization. He graduated from Jedrzej Sniadecki Academy of Physical Education and Sport, specializing in Tourism and Recreation. Since 2007 he has managed a wide diversity of projects, such as drawing up of the National Stadium's functional concept or coordination of the UEFA Euro 2012TM finals in Gdansk on UEFA's behalf.

In September 2012 he was appointed Director of Marketing and Development of the MTG SA Gdansk International Fair Co. being responsible for introduction of new products and events in the AMBEREXPO Exhibition and Convention Centre, as well as for various other projects.