Routes and Low Season Traveller to tackle challenge of tourism seasonality
The inaugural Tourism Seasonality Summit is set to take place on October 8, bringing together thought-leaders from destinations, airports and airlines to explore innovative solutions for sustainable growth beyond peak tourist seasons.
Set against a backdrop of a growing global population and an increase in the global middle class of an additional 1 billion by 2030, the number of international visitor arrivals could potentially double from 2019 levels of 1.4 billion over the next decade. In response to these dynamics, the World Travel and Tourism Council's 2024 Economic Impact Report projects that the travel and tourism sector will generate over 12.2% of global employment.
To address the challenges of sustainable growth outside peak seasons, the inaugural Tourism Seasonality Summit will be co-located with Routes World, the world’s leading route development forum, and will focus on:
- The economic, environmental, and social impacts of seasonality on destinations, airports, and airlines.
- Identifying new opportunities to extend tourist seasons, including attracting more diverse visitor segments.
- Leveraging new technologies to manage tourism flows and enhance the visitor experience throughout the year.
Steven Small, director of Routes, said: “We are delighted to announce this world-first summit in partnership with Low Season Traveller. For almost 30 years, Routes has focused on providing a platform where airlines, airports and destinations can collaborate to develop sustainable air services. The challenge of balancing tourism growth to ensure that the positive economic impacts of travel are seen year-round for destinations is apparent.”
Small added: “Having previously worked for destinations, I have firsthand experience of this. Collaboration and knowledge sharing will be at the heart of the solution, which is why we will be proud to deliver a platform where destinations can create and share strategies alongside route development decision makers.”
Ged Brown, Founder and CEO of the Tourism Seasonality Summit and Low Season Traveller, said: “It’s an absolute pleasure to partner with Routes World for this inaugural Tourism Seasonality Summit. Low Season Traveller has pioneered the expansion of seasonality for the past 5 years and it is abundantly clear that this pressing challenge requires aviation and tourism to come together to formulate the solutions. There is no better place for these conversations to happen than at Routes World”.
The inaugural Tourism Seasonality Summit will take place on October 8 at Routes World in the Kingdom of Bahrain.