Successful ITB Exhibitions in Berlin: The Look into the Future

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Despite global crises, the industry displayed confidence at ITB Berlin 2024 – people’s desire to travel appears unabated. The most important topics were the growing importance of AI, the shortage of skilled labour and climate justice.

All signs point to success in 2024: the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show put a clear focus on shaping the future and once again underlined its role as the leading international platform for business, innovation and networking. At ITB Berlin 2024 over 5,500 exhibitors from 170 countries displayed their products and services to almost 100,000 attendees.

“ITB Berlin once again mirrored industry developments. The mood among exhibitors, visitors and speakers was very positive throughout. They generally agreed that people’s desire to travel is not just satisfying pent-up demand after the pandemic, but that it will remain basically stable. Neither inflation nor high energy prices appear to be curbing demand“, commented Dr. Mario Tobias, CEO of Messe Berlin.

’Pioneer the Transition in Travel & Tourism. Together.’

Proof of the fact that the industry is a driving force for innovation was given not least by the ITB Berlin Convention, which took place parallel with the three-day show and featured high-profile attendees and a total of 400 leading international speakers at 200 sessions and 17 theme tracks discussing trends and innovations. All in all, around 24,000 attendees came to the panels, discussions, keynote speeches and lectures, again acknowledging the convention as the industry’s leading international thinktank.

ITB Berlin Convention underlines its role as a forward-looking thinktank

AI and its potential uses were a much-discussed topic. For the first time, the ITB Berlin Convention hosted a dedicated AI Track, which was very well received by the event’s 24,000 attendees. It was generally agreed that no organisation or company could any longer ignore AI.

Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, was certain that “generative AI can be of more assistance than real humans when customers are making their travel plans.“ Charuta Fadnis, SVP, Phocuswright also acknowledged the growing importance of AI and personalised travel apps. Generative AI is already improving sales, while in Fadnis’ view, using virtual agents and combining AI with blockchain technologies will be key to preventing misuse in the future.

The convention participants also agreed that it was impossible to ignore climate justice and the skills shortage, for which there were promising solutions however. Jeremy Sampson, CEO of the Travel Foundation, appealed to the tourism industry to aim for net zero by 2030. His study entitled ’Envisioning Tourism in 2030 and Beyond’ outlines a dynamic path with a focus on regulating air travel and 40 measures in six categories for achieving sustainable tourism by 2050.

AI was also a big topic for the ITB Innovation Radar, which this year celebrated its second edition. The focus was on 16 forward-looking innovations presented by industry visionaries. They ranged from B2B services for the hospitality industry and travel industry professionals to sustainable concepts. The innovations offered a glimpse of future trends.