ITT stalwart questions venue choice

One of the keynote speakers at next month’s Institute of Travel and Tourism conference has questioned the decision to hold the event in Barbados.

Hoseasons chief executive Richard Carrick stressed he supported the event, which takes place on June 13-15, but felt it would have been more appropriate to hold it in a European destination more associated with business meetings.

“The whole point about the ITT is that it’s a forum for a small group of senior people to discuss business,” said Carrick.

“Time is precious for these people and I think it should be held somewhere two to three hours flying time away. The bottom line is it takes a day to get to Barbados and a day to get back. Of course, there is time to relax, but we’re really there for business.”

Carrick added that it was difficult to see what benefit a leisure destination such as Barbados would gain from hosting the conference.

“I think Barbados is more appropriate for an ABTA conference. I’m sure the Barbados officials have their own reasons for hosting the event but there won’t be too many people attending who will go back and launch a programme of holidays to the area.”

Despite having reservations about the venue, Carrick said the ITT conference was one of the few industry events in the calendar that stood out, because of the high number of senior figures it attracted.

Carrick will chair a session with Thomas Cook UK chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa and TUI UK chief Peter Rothwell, looking at the difficulty of transforming a traditional business into a major online player.

“It is a very difficult thing to suddenly reduce the number of shops and get rid of jobs, because that’s people’s livelihoods,” said Carrick.

“On top of that, shareholders don’t want you to write off assets on the balance sheet and then when you do change the nature of the business, you’ve got to ask yourself whether you’ve got the right people.”

Carrick said there were too many travel conferences during the year and predicted some would fall by the wayside.

“Many events are playing to a formula with the same old figures trotting out the same old stuff.  They are repetitive and the level of content is very superficial because they are catering for too wide an audience,” he said.

“It is expensive to attend these events and, as the industry matures and changes, the value of social networking is receding.

“You’ve got to ask yourself: are you going to learn anything from it? If not, there’s no point in going.”

Carrick declined to comment on speculation linking him with the vacant chief executive post at easyJet following the resignation of Ray Webster.