Leadership Exchange: Strategic questions for the next 20 years

With the Leadership Exchange, Phocuswright and ITB Berlin have created a new, exclusive dialogue format that deliberately goes beyond traditional conference formats. In a closed circle of leading decision-makers from the travel industry, technology, investment and strategy, the focus was not on day-to-day operations but on setting the structural course for the next two decades

The 90-minute gathering on Tuesday at the CityCube Berlin convened international industry representatives to discuss key issues for the future of the global travel industry. The starting point was the conviction that tourism is at a strategic turning point: technological innovations – especially in the field of AI – changing market structures, geopolitical challenges and ecological conditions are fundamentally changing value creation, competition and responsibility.

Instead of focusing on short-term trends, the Leadership Exchange took a long-term view: Where will value be created in an increasingly AI-mediated world? How can growth be made sustainable without jeopardising its own foundations? Who can be trusted – and who bears responsibility? And what strategic decisions need to be made today in order to remain relevant and competitive in 2046?

At the beginning of the session, moderators Pete Comeau, managing director of Phocuswright, and Florence Kaci, Phocuswright’s senior director for EMEA, presented seven strategic questions, and the participants jointly prioritised the four topics they considered most relevant for the next 20 years.

In interactive working groups, the participants examined the topics under different headings: "biggest opportunity," "greatest risk," "uncomfortable truth" and "concrete priority over the next three years."

The Leadership Exchange ultimately focused on the following four topics:

Who owns trust in 2046? 
Where does value sit in an AI-native industry? 
Is travel a right — or a privilege?
Does travel consolidate — or fragment?

The format was conducted under the confidentiality convention of the Chatham House Rule, whereby information received can be freely used as long as the identity of the speaker is not revealed. The aim was to create strategic orientation in a phase of profound transformation and to identify concrete fields of action for the immediate future.

A curated summary of the key findings of the Leadership Exchange is currently being prepared and will be published in a report at the end of March.

With the Leadership Exchange, Phocuswright and ITB Berlin have purposely established a protected space for strategic thinking away from the distractions of the trade show, with the aim of shaping a travel industry that can take on the next two decades in innovative, resilient and responsible ways.