Keynote: R&R 2024

Innovation in Travel Keynote Presentation featuring AI and Climate Tech

The R&R Forum 2024

I was delighted to provide the innovation keynote for Resort & Retail Hospitality Forum (R&R) held in Athens, Greece from 18 - 20 November 2024. The R&R is a premier international event focused on the leisure and hospitality sectors, organised by Questex in collaboration with Enterprise Greece and the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO). The forum attracts a diverse audience of travel and leisure executives, including owners, hoteliers, investors, and developers from more than 20 countries, all eager to explore new market opportunities and growth strategies.  Tourism is an important sector for Greece, accounting for nearly 20% of its GDP and is expected to generate over €22 Billion in 2024.

The IHG host venue is close to the famous Acropolis in Athens

R&R Forum - Athens 2024

This year the R&R Forum at the IHG Athens and welcomed over 470 participants including 100+ investors in hospitality real estate and 75 speakers. Over two days of discussions, presentations, interviews and interactive session, speakers shared their insights on investment in the leisure hospitality and residential market. 

Innovation Keynote

The theme of this year’s conference, "Big Ambitions, Big Results," resonated deeply with attendees as we explored the intersection of leadership, innovation, and technology in the hospitality sector.  My keynote focused on how emerging technologies—particularly in AI, climate tech, and automation—are reshaping the travel landscape, optimising business performance, enhancing customer experiences, and accelerating sustainability objectives. I covered three main themes in the keynote.

The Power of Innovation in Travel and Tourism - looking at the opportunity landscape for corporate innovators and some data around investment in the travel start-up ecosystem.

Image showing Global R&D Spend in 2024 including corporate R&D, number of patent filings, and scientific publications.

Keynote slide on opportunities for innovation

Transformational tech areas - The travel industry continues to attract new innovators and investors. Short-term rentals and next gen aircraft attracted considerable investor interest in 2023. In addition, AI, Climate Tech, and Automation are three key focus areas from developments in autonomous driving, AI for travel planning and drone technology to combat wildfires. The landscape within travel tech remains vibrant.

Travel remains an area which attracts innovator and investor interest

Strategic Leadership for Corporate Innovators - covering best practice ways in which corporates can partner with innovators and start-ups to embrace new opportunities for revenue growth, cost savings, and improved sustainability.

There more information about conference sessions and key themes on our R&R Forum coverage including a recap of my talk here.

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