Guy Wilkinson was fortunate enough to attend the WTTC Summit that took place in Abu Dhabi this year. He reports on the key trends discussed at this high-level global forum, and focuses on issues of importance to the Middle East hotel sector.

1. hotelier Middle East | May 2013 | Volume 12 Issue 05
WTTC GLOBAL SUMMIT
66
His Excellency Mubarak Al Muhairi, director general, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority opened the summit.
T
he arrival of the 13th
World Travel and
Tourism Council Global Summit in Abu
Dhabi was a momentous occasion for
the capital, with Abu Dhabi Tourism &
Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and
Etihad Airways joining forces to host
the event at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers
on April 9-10. The event theme was ‘A time for Leadership’,
with David Scowsill, president and CEO of the World Travel
& Tourism Council (WTTC) calling on the tourism industry
“to grasp the mantle of leadership in order to influence”.
In his opening speech, Scowsill urged the 1000-strong delegates
to “not only influence at industry level but at world level, not only
within government chambers, but in boardrooms, in the media,
amongst employees and within supply chains”.
“Leadership is about influence,” stated Scowsill. “How do we
facilitate the growth of our industry responsibly and sustainably,
without destroying our planet in the process? How do we manage
the growth in demand for international travel from the two billion
new middle class consumers emerging from burgeoning econo-
mies of China and India? How do we prepare for the next one bil-
lion international travellers crossing country borders each year?”
While the first day of the conference provided a broad brush
overview of these issues — with the keynote speech from president
Bill Clinton challenging industry
leaders to take the mantle of eco-
nomic responsibility with tourism as
the game changer — the second day
tackled the specifics behind Scow-
sill’s last question.
UP IN THE AIR
A tripartite session entitled ‘Get-
ting ready for the next one billion’
was logically split between focuses
on aviation, hotels and other sector
players such as cruise lines, railways
and travel companies. Moderator
Peter Greenburg, travel editor of
CBS News, introduced the session
by commenting that global airlines
achieved a margin of just 1.3% in
2012. Keynote speaker James Ho-
gan, CEO of Etihad Airways, quoted
IATA data showing that Middle
East airlines’ passenger traffic was
up 10.6% in 2012, compared to 3.7%
worldwide. He referred in particular
to the advantages enjoyed by young
Gulf airlines such as Etihad, Emir-
ates and Qatar Airways, compared
to the ‘legacy’ airlines of the US, Eu-
rope and the Far East.
“We started [Etihad] with a clean
sheetofpaper.Wewerenotburdened
by the legacy handcuffs, whether they
be union agreements, infrastructure
agreements or multi hubs,” stated
Hogan. Quoting impressive figures
for Etihad (73 aircraft serving 83 di-
rect destinations, 90 planes on order,
10million‘guests’servedin10years),
he said the airline had codeshare
partnerships with 42 airlines and
minority equity investments in four
other carriers. Of Etihad’s 14,500
staff, 1000 were Emiratis, including
an all-female call centre in Al Ain.
In the lively panel session that
ensued, Willie Walsh, CEO of Inter-
national Airlines Group (the parent
company of British Airways, Iberia
and bmi) admired the advance of
Dubai from the world’s 99th
hub air-
port in 1999 to number two in 2012,
characterising the Gulf as the oppo-
site to Europe, thanks to its excellent
infrastructure and absence of gov-
ernment restrictions. He was par-
ticularly critical of European airport
taxes — especially the British ‘Air
Passenger Duty’ — a view that was
passionately reiterated by various
speakers throughout the day.
“Not a single penny goes to the
industry or the environment,” he
We have a million
guests staying
every night and they are
mining data like it’s a
candy store”
Darren Richard Huston, Booking.com.
special report
TIMEFORTRAVEL
Guy Wilkinson reports from the World Travel and Tourism Council Global Summit in Abu Dhabi,
where leadership, taxation, sustainability and technology ranked high on the agenda

2. WTTC GLOBAL SUMMIT
Hotelier Middle East | May 2013 | Volume 12 Issue 05 67
Etihad Airways CEO James Hogan. Jumeirah’s Gerald Lawless, Robert Swade with Emirates Academy’s Ron Hilvert.
BurgessMendola_HME_201x132.indd 1 17/04/2013 13:00
ning to hire 90,000 new staff over
the next three years to support its
global expansion, with China being
its largest growth market.
“Our job as a brand is to make
sure we have the best location in
the market,” Solomons added. “We
have maps of Abu Dhabi and Dubai
showing where we want to be.”
Arthur de Haast, chairman, Ho-
telsandHospitalityGroupofJones
Lang LaSalle Hotels, suggested
that hotel chains should focus their
expansion strategies not only on
locations where there was evident
hotel demand, but also where hos-
pitality represented a better invest-
ment than other assets.
“[The brands] should be think-
ing of how they can deliver returns
in certain locations. Virtually all
the brands could do more in focus-
ing on [the needs of investors].”
Darren Richard Huston, CEO of
Booking.com, said technology was
a key to brand penetration. He ex-
plained that through online book-
ing, guests are able to base their
lodging choices on a plethora of
details. “In the age of the internet,
information is being democratised
to such an extent…We have a mil-
stated. “A recent Pricewaterhouse-
Coopers report shows that if you
scrap the tax, you actually boost
the economy.”
Martin Craigs, CEO of the Pacif-
ic Asia Travel Association, added:
“To you hoteliers who think this
has nothing to do with you, I would
politely suggest that it has a lot to
do with your beloved development
pipeline, (which) will be blocked if
you do not allow passengers to get
to your facilities.”
ROOM FOR A NIGHT
The focus then turned to hotels,
with a session centred on the way
brands and technology are helping
hotel chains grow their markets.
Keynote speaker Richard Solo-
mons, CEO of InterContinental
Hotels Group (IHG), said: “A ho-
tel brand is about an experience
and that experience is delivered by
people. We spend an awful lot of
time looking for talent and train-
ing talent.” He said IHG was plan-
How could we
speed up the visa
process without jeopard-
ising security?”
Desiree Bollier, Value Retail.

3. HOTELIER MIDDLE EAST | May 2013 | Volume 12 Issue 05
WTTC GLOBAL SUMMIT
68
man and CEO, Mission Hills Group. He went on to say that China
would open 100 new airports by 2015 and add 120,000 km of new
railway lines serving 600 cities and 50 million people in the next
eight years, in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He told the
audience there would also be six new cruise ship ports in Hainan
Island alone — the venue for next year’s WTTC Global Summit.
Desiree Bollier, CEO of Value Retail, confirmed that the Chi-
nese were the top spenders on luxury duty free goods, followed by
the Russians, the GCC and Brazil. These are the people you want
booking your hotels — but it’s not that simple.
The session revealed that the Chinese are facing major visa
lion guests staying every night and they are
mining data like it’s a candy store. People
can now come to Abu Dhabi and Dubai
and use all the filters. They can even live
different lives, as a businessman and with
the family (with different filtering profiles).
Brands are completely relevant now, but
they can’t afford to be average — they’ve
got to be the best.”
HustonaddedthatiPhoneandiPadusage
in Dubai and the UAE was unusually high.
THE CHINA DEBATE
Another session ‘Common Problems,
Common Solutions’ was discussed by a
panel including senior representatives of
the cruise-line industry, railways, trav-
el companies and others — with China
emerging as a key focus.
China was the source of an astonishing
83 million outbound travellers in 2012,
who spent $100 million on their travels
and will increase in numbers to 200 mil-
lion by 2020, according to Ken Chu, chair-
“The conference was a great success. I enjoyed the networking and the
sessions. Interesting development in integrating social media into the heart
of the event – sets the standard for conferences.”
Alex Kyriakidis, president and managing director, Middle East & Africa
Continent, Marriott International, applauded the live Twitter feed on
stage during the conference.
“Visas and excessive taxation are major hurdles to growth. Martin Craigs,
Willie Walsh and James Hogan all agreed and we, through Bench Events,
will bang the drum, alongside our industry partners, to lobby governments
to lighten regulation and reduce tax which will facilitate economic growth
and employment.”
Jonathan Worsley, chairman — Bench Events, pledged to continue to
champion the messages raised at WTTC.
“I think this is one of the finest tourism events that I’ve attended in my life,
and I’ve attended several. The quality of the speeches… the content, the
manner in which they communicate, I think it’s terrific. I feel there is just one
lack — of speeches from the emerging economies — where is the guy from
India, from Brazil?”
Gautam Sen Gupta, partner, Market Vision Research & Consulting Ser-
vices, sought more involvement from BRIC industry experts.
“The conference has been an excellent gathering. What we see here is the
movers,theshakersandthosethatareactuallygoingtoimplementthestrat-
egy. And so from our perspective, it’s a perfect networking opportunity to
talk about… our race of zeppelins and air ships around the earth. There is a
confluence here of people who are very much pro-green… and at the same
time looking to promote their cultures, their destinations, so this is a perfect
context for this kind of conversation.
Don Hartsell, commissioner and MD, World Air League, looks to balance
the conflict of airlift and sustainability.
“The World Travel & Tourism Council has done a magnificent job in staging a
major event like this in a place like Abu Dhabi, above all because it is a new
global destination that embodies what the future holds, today. The event has
caused us all to reflect on the possible consequences of this rapid growth of
tourism worldwide for the earth, and for the survival and sustainability of its
humanity itself. The forum has set out a path for the tourism industry in terms
of raising consumers’ consciousness about the need to change certain con-
sumption patterns in order to conserve the earth. This seemed to me to be
a very good outcome.”
Francisco Alonso, Mexican Ambassador in the UAE.
What the delegates said
4.4%Growth of travel and tourism
GDP on average per year
US$10.5
trillion
dollars
Total economic contribu-
tion of travel and tourism
to GDP by 2023
1000Delegatesattended
WTTCAbuDhabi
70million
Jobs to be in
tourism by
2023
STATATTACK
10.3mnPassengerscarried
byEtihadAirways
in2012
Jobstobeintraveland
tourismby2023
1in10
Number1WTTC forecasts that
China will overtake
the United States as
the world’s largest
travel and tourism
economy by 2023
WTTC’s David Scowsill speaking at the event.
Former US president Bill Clinton at the summit.
Weareinacrisison
everylevel–aneco-
nomiccrisis,aclimatecrisis,
anoverpopulationcrisis,an
extinctioncrisis,awatercrisis,
anoceanacidificationcrisis”
Darryl Hannah, actress and activist.

4. HOTELIER MIDDLE EAST | May 2013 | Volume 12 Issue 05
WTTC GLOBAL SUMMIT
70
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Booking.com’sDarrenRichardHuston
discussedtheroleoftechnologyintourism.
Martin Craigs, chief executive officer
at Pacific Asia Travel Association.
out the event. Again, it linked the
overall theme of leadership, with
the industry urged to work togeth-
er to drive change.
Finally, no travel industry confer-
ence would be complete without
addressing the increasingly signifi-
cant impact of technology on the
tourism industry.
Carroll Rheem, senior director,
research of PhoCusWright, said in
a panel on the topic that 80% of US
and European travellers use the in-
ternet to shop for travel.
Lee McCabe, global head of
travel from Facebook, said that
10% of online travel spend in 2014
will come from mobile devices, and
that already 25% of mobile usage is
on Facebook and Instagram.
“[The Facebook] platform is
built on the influence of friends
and we’re finding that in travel,
that’s always been the most power-
ful influence.” McCabe showed a
video about how the MGM hotels
in Las Vegas were using Facebook
to turn guests into ‘our ambassa-
dors, our marketers’, with returns
of between three and 15 times on
their advertising spend through
the website.
Other panelists demonstrated
impressive new mobile technology
for a language ‘phrase book’ plat-
form and virtual tours of hotels.
Charles Armstrong, CEO of Tour-
Wrist, showed how he could use
his iPad to give a ‘next generation’
virtual hotel tour, moving it up and
down as though it were truly a win-
dow onto a hotel lobby, and also
demonstrating how his software
can allow such images to be shot by
guests from an iPhone.
He commented: “We’re sharing
photos, words, experiences, tweets
on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
and Youtube. This is marketing
gold, this is the best endorsement a
travel brand could have.”
restrictions, with just 6% of last
year’s outbound total able to visit
Europe and just 1.25% the US, ac-
cording to Chu. Bollier echoed the
sentiments of many in the forum
when she complained that govern-
ment visa restrictions for many
nationalities was impacting tourist
flows around the world.
“The cost of the visa… the length
it takes, you are almost saying ‘you
are not welcome to come.’ On the
one hand, you are saying that the
tourism industry is an economic
saviour of the planet, and on the
other, there is no joined-up think-
ing by the government bodies to
say, well, let’s do something about
it collectively,” said Bollier. “How
could we speed up the process
without jeopardising security?”
TECH IT FURTHER
Sustainability was a major focus
for the conference, not only in the
session entitled ‘Scarce Resources:
Numerous Answers,’ but through-