The ITAA conference was held two weeks ago in the beautiful location of Alcobaca, Portugal in association with Visit Portugal!
Earlier in the year, Visit Portugal and Travel Trade Representation (TTR) teamed up with the ITAA as part of a new campaign to empower younger people to get involved in the industry, and be able to meet and have accessibility to the industry’s top leaders.
As the industry grows, moving into new eras, it’s important that younger voices and bigger, brighter ideas have the opportunity to be heard and evaluated. International trends like Artificial Intelligence are becoming a key component in every day sales and marketing tactics. Alongside this, customers travel trends are shifting- with holidaymakers looking for more niche and unique ways of travelling and this too is inspiring a change in the market.
Inspired by these shifts, Visit Portugal, TTR and the ITAA held a competition earlier in the year to offer three spaces at the ITAA conference to the new Rising Stars of the Industry! The competition took place as part of the Visit Portugal Roadshow operated by TTR, where Portugal’s key leaders from hotel groups, DMCs and Portuguese suppliers travelled to Dublin, Waterford and Cork.
The lucky winners were Shay Browne from Killiney Travel and Aran Krebbe from Travel Department!
At the ITAA conference Shay and Aran had a front row seat to network with representatives from across the travel industry- from travel agent directors, to media, to representatives from the largest companies in the trade. From the first night of the conference, where there was a sing-song in a local restaurant to the following day’s exploration of Cintra, to the main conference held on Friday- they had a fascinating time. Being in their early twenties, Aran and Shay came to the conference with fresh outlooks and new perspectives. Here’s what they had to say:
Shay Browne from Killiney Travel, who has worked in the travel agency for three years, had a fantastic time telling ITTN’s Katie: “This was an incredible opportunity for me to learn more about the industry and meet with industry experts. We had some amazing excursions and ate fantastic food. I really enjoyed the conference itself, especially to learn more in the AI sector as my role is more focused on Marketing and websites. It was fantastic to hear from Danny Waine on his talk, “The Travel Agent of the Future: Human or AI?” and Daniele Cintra on “The Marketing Machine: Turning Strategy into Bookings” to find out more about how I can positively impact not only Killiney Travel, as I continue to grow my career, but also the industry as a whole.”
Aran Krebbe, Product Executive at Travel Department, also had a ball, he’s only been at Travel Department for seventeen months! Aran said, “I am so grateful to the ITAA, Carlos from Visit Portugal and Michael Collins and the team from Travel Trade Representation for the opportunity. As my role is focused on Product, it’s great to actually be on the ground to experience what our customers will see when they visit these fantastic destinations. Like Shay, I really enjoyed the conference itself- and getting to learn not only about specific topics on marketing and sales, but also from industry leaders. Carlos’ presentation for Visit Portugal was fantastic in inspiring me to use this opportunity to develop my understanding of the region as a whole.”
We’re looking forward to what’s next for these young professionals!
