Travel Trends with Dan Christian
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Travel Trends with Dan Christian
Event Preview: TIS - Tourism Innovation Summit 2025
Tickets are booked, slides are brewing, and Seville is calling. The Tourism Innovation Summit is a three-day, five-stage gathering where tech, innovation, and sustainability meet the real reasons we travel: culture, connection, and stories that last.
In this event preview episode, we sit down with Congress Director Brigitte Hidalgo to unpack how TIS scaled to 8,000+ attendees and 400 speakers while staying sharp and useful. Expect candid sessions on AI that go beyond buzzwords, insights on “travel tribes” from group adventures to city-scale experiences, and case studies on influencer campaigns, cultural stewardship, and designing authentic moments that resonate.
If you’re weighing where to spend conference time, here’s the upside: affordable passes, a walkable city, engineered networking, and a lineup that spans Microsoft and Amadeus to bold AI startups. Can’t make it? Sessions are recorded and translated for replay back home.
Bottom line: the future belongs to organizations that blend smart tech with human-centered travel. Join us in Seville, Oct 22–24 → tisglobalsummit.com.
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My idea was just to share that the new travelers, especially the young generation, you know, that the I call them the TikTok guys. And you know, they are really more looking into something different when planning their trip. And the fact of the that's why the session is called Travelers Tribe.
SPEAKER_01:Hello everyone and welcome to a special event preview of Travel Trends. This is your host, Dan Christian, and today we're going to be profiling the Tourism Innovation Summit that is going to be held in Seville, Spain, October 22nd to 24th, 2025. I have the privilege this year of giving a keynote at the event and also moderating a panel later in the day. So be sure to register at tisglobalsummit.com to plan to join us. And on our conversation today, we're going to be speaking to Bridget Hidalgo, who is the Congress Director. She has an incredibly impressive history in the travel industry. She spent nearly 15 years as the CEO of Weekend Desk, and she took over this role as Congress Director about six months ago and has brought together some amazing speakers, which includes my good friend Andrea D'Amico, the CEO of WeRoad, as well as Laura Cilio Pavat from Pernault Ricard, who kindly sponsored our In Destination series. And I am looking forward to seeing many colleagues there at this event for the very first time for me, but I've heard about this event for many years, as it's been held for nearly six years now in Seville, Spain. And it has attracted traditionally a very domestic audience, but their plans and the profile is to increase the international guests. And I'm keen to be a part of that and know that many of our other colleagues are traveling for the summit as well. Now, you can find out more information at tisglobalsummit.com and plan to register and join us. But let's bring in Bridget to tell us everything we need to know about the event, the venue, and some of the incredible speakers and sessions that they have planned. So welcome, Bridget. Thanks so much for joining us on Travel Trends.
SPEAKER_02:Hi Dan. Happy to be here with you today.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for the invitation. I'm so looking forward to giving a keynote and moderating a panel. I'm hoping that many of our listeners join us in Seville for the Tourism Innovation Summit. I'm so excited to be joining for my first time. But tell us a little bit about your role there. I know you're the Congress director. Tell us a little bit about your role at Tourism Innovation Summit, and then we'll get into the event itself.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. So I'm just working as the Congress Director. I'm just uh creating uh or trying to create a fantastic agenda, three days agenda. Uh Tourism Innovation Summit that have like five auditoriums, so uh with several verticals, industry verticals, and with specific uh spaces dedicated to professionals or several types of uh professionals that are do have all relationship with the tourism industry.
SPEAKER_01:Fantastic. And I know the event's been around for a number of years. As I was saying, it's my first time coming, and I've got a lot of friends that are going to be there, a lot of colleagues, and many of them have been before. And I but I'm very keen to know the background on TIS as it's shortened to.
SPEAKER_02:Well, TIS is celebrating its sixth edition this year. So um we've we've been growing year over year. Uh and uh past year we reached a bit more than 8,000 visitors, and we put together around 400 speakers, uh, which is uh for sure the minimum we expect to have this year.
SPEAKER_01:Staggering. I know the numbers are uh massive compared to other conferences, and so yeah, you've gotta have several thousand attendees to be able to have 400 speakers, but nevertheless, I'm honored to be a part of that. I know Andre D'Amico from We Road is gonna be there, and um our good friend to Laura Cilio Pavat from Perno Ricard.
SPEAKER_00:That's it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so tell us a little bit about the theme for this year.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the uh TIS uh has always I would say three verticals. So we always are really just focusing on technology, innovation, and sustainability. Sustainability. I would say those are the main three pillars. Uh the theme this year is innovation in motion. Um tourism remanage, and uh what we're trying to share with the audience this year is just how tourism is uh transforming, and not only uh for sure technologically, so how AI uh is impacting uh our day-to-day, but as well how many new innovations, how how way we can how tourism is addressed um everywhere a bit uh in the world and in the market, and just to share experiences, case studies, ideas, so that everyone can just lift his um yeah, with a fresh uh I would say master of of yeah things to to to do and to test uh back home.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. Obviously, innovation and technology, those are two great passions of mine and my background. And so those are two topics that I'm keen to hear other speakers talk about.
SPEAKER_02:That's why we are so happy to have you on board, Dan.
SPEAKER_01:And then sustainability, which is something that I'm you know, I'm I'm also passionate about, but it's not my background. So I'm always interested to hear from other leaders in that field on sustainability. And I want to come back in a moment to some of the other speakers, but just on terms of the agenda itself, you mentioned it's over the course of three days. Tell everyone a little bit more about where the event is located and what and um and how they can get tickets.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. The event is located in Seville, so a fantastic city of the south of Spain, just two hours away from uh Madrid by train, for example. It's located in Fives, which is a very nice exhibition center, and tickets are for sale uh via the website, uh um for sure, so that there are several passes and several options that we so that customers can just check.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. The reason I wanted to mention that is because the tickets are quite reasonable, especially for uh, and I wanted to ask you that about that before we get into who attends a tourism innovation summit, who should attend, because one of the things that can often be the case is based on location and the cost. Uh, but the cost, yeah, the tickets themselves, you know, about 500 euros. So it's very accessible depending on uh but tell us a little bit about who comes to an event like this. Who is your typical audience and who are you looking to attract this year?
SPEAKER_02:I would say we have a very uh mixed audience so far. Uh for sure. We have an important part of the audience coming from Spain. I would say around 60% uh of the visitors. Um we are what we are really uh trying to increase is the uh international visitors for sure, and that's why we are just reinforcing this year's the the international speakers so that we we can just um increase the level of international and but we have a very mixed audience, I would say. Um for sure, uh everything related to the hospitality industry, as well, very much important to um uh investors, uh travel agencies, distribution tours and activities, and uh yeah, um as well, destinations are very important of their interes. Um yeah, and everything which is linked to technology. So we have big partners like uh uh Amadeus, Microsoft, and so on just partnering uh with us. So it's as well very, I would say, techie uh tech. How would you say this in English? Tech yeah, techy event.
SPEAKER_01:Very techie event, exactly. Well, actually, the Web and Travel, which is one of the biggest technology events in the world, it's held in Lisbon each year, and obviously that's very close in Portugal. I'm actually flying through Lisbon. And as uh Bridget knows, I was in Spain for our big family summer holiday this year when our kids turned 18, and we had the most spectacular time in Spain. And we were chatting at the Focus Right conference in Barcelona and both remarking how amazing a city Barcelona is, because you're actually based near Barcelona or in around Barcelona, is that right, Bridget? That's it.
SPEAKER_02:I'm based uh close to Barcelona.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, yeah. Yeah, very fortunate to live in that such a beautiful part of the world. And when we were speaking about Seville, and I haven't been in so many years, but I cannot wait to get back. So there's always an appeal to be able to go to uh a conference in a destination that is as beautiful as a place like Seville. So I'm looking forward to seeing a bit more of the city again and touring around because that's obviously why we all do what we do. We love traveling and have a passion for this industry. Um and so the event itself, obviously, you mentioned about 60% people being from Spain, so it's been a um and the event itself obviously attracts a large domestic audience. But tell us a little bit about the international appeals as far as why people should come to the event. I know uh mentioned the location, obviously the tickets, some of the speakers uh obviously will talk about, but um, you also have exhibitors as well. So tell us a little bit about the experience on site that draws people and and specifically why international uh uh international travelers should consider coming to uh Seville this year.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we have as yeah, as as as you mentioned, so very important uh exhibitors, but as well more small ones or just medium ones that are just sharing all the new stuff they're building for uh for travel, you know, which is for sure this year very much linked to AI in all the verticals, how AI is uh uh impacting uh um our uh industry. Uh I would say as well that we are securing um, I mean, for sure the audience, as you say, is majority uh domestic, but year over year the international part is increasing, so it's as well a fantastic spot to share and to discover uh new companies and new ways. We are as well hosting uh the travel uh innovation awards. So we have as well a specific um exhibition as well dedicated uh for startups only, which are where uh European startups uh just share uh their and pitch uh their their um let's say the products. So and that's well, it's a moment just to reflect and to to to share knowledge. Um so it's for sure, and it's you would say maybe another event, but this one, you know, as I said, technology innovation. I'm I want to highlight this word innovation because with this, and you're moderating as well a very nice panel which is more about innovation and how travel is evolving. Um so I would say uh those um teas, well, one of the differences as well is like the Congress is very important. So we do have these five auditoriums which are on a row, uh which are uh dedicated amount to different verticals and different topics. Um and yeah, during three days, there's I would say around 180 different types of conferences. Um so yeah, it's very rich in terms of content and sharing.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. And you put a lot of time and effort into curating this agenda. Obviously, that's been a huge part of your role. So I want to highlight some of the sessions that people can look forward to. And I know you can't play favorites because you've got so many amazing speakers and so many incredible sessions planned. You've kindly mentioned the one that I'm gonna do, which is the top six AI trends for 2026 that everyone needs to be paying attention to, which is shaped based on our AI summit that I know a lot of our listeners are attending, and many people from TIS will be as well, because it'll be a week after this event live, is when we host our event. But also, as you mentioned, I'm gonna be hosting a panel later in the day that I'm so looking forward to about traveling with your tribe. And I have three incredible companies on that panel. I have uh We Road, who I work closely with. Obviously, Andrea D'Amico is a good friend and colleague. He's speaking himself, but I have one of their team members joining me for that discussion, and then Fever as well, which many people know Fever, one of the most successful global travel companies in the last few years, and interesting, based in Spain. So um and I know their three founders quite well. Uh Ignacio Nacho, as he's referred to, who uh is going to be on our travel trends podcast, but also um Rafael on their team who does the press. So um we'll have um uh fever represented, and then one that you have uh nominated that I wasn't as familiar with, um, called uh Time Left. Time Less.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, time Time Left.
SPEAKER_01:And it's this whole concept of having dinner with strangers, which was this new startup I wasn't familiar with. So I'm I'm excited to meet them. I'm excited to have this conversation. Um so yeah, uh maybe t tell everyone a little bit about that session because obviously you've kindly curated it. And then I'd love if you wouldn't mind mentioning a few of the other sessions that you're really looking forward to.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. Well, this session in in in and I was and and you know what? I I was checking that I had a lot of of uh people interested and asking me already about when you know the agenda is already, but the agenda at a glance is already published on the website, and I had so many questions, and even companies like saying, Well, it would be interesting because that's what I did what we address. So the way the way travel is becoming so large now. And and then uh for sure we have and we will address, I would say, the most traditional um distribution ways with the big companies just like such as lastminute.com, Tui, um Data Travel, and so on. But in my idea was just to share that the new travelers, especially the young generation, you know, that the I call them the TikTok guys. Um you know, they are really more looking into something different when planning their trip. And the fact of the that's why the session is called travel as a tribe, you know, because I mean, and the time left, it's just uh it's a new company, French company that just started some years ago, growing like crazy. And I found the concept very interesting. And when I enrich them and explain them, you know, that that's and that's really their goal as well, you know, just to position it themselves as an opportunity or just to, yeah, the way of of and the new way of traveling.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, it's interesting. I I find these sessions particularly compelling at a time when on one side we're talking about AI and how it's going to transform everything, and at the same time, on the other, we're also human and we desire human connection and the idea of having dinner with strangers. And and so I the two can be true at the same time. I think that's my overall view on this. Um, there's many benefits to technology, but the reason we travel is primarily driven around human connection and culture, and and so I agree, I totally agree.
SPEAKER_02:That's the right point. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:And cuisine and and and all the senses. So tell us a few other highlight sessions that you've brought together that uh I and many of our listeners can look forward to and and plan to attend.
SPEAKER_02:Well, yes, we have for as well for sure, which is more the a bit more traditional, I think, but it's just like the influencer marketing, how a post can bring thousands of visitors. We'll have the expertise of specific company, Wynebox, which is a Spanish company, which is just addressing the maximum of the efforts and their marketing budget towards influencers, and as well, we'll have the CMO of Civitatis uh sharing as well their expertise on that sense. We'll have as well, I would say, uh, and I and you know her, um Laura uh from Bernard Ricard, uh, she's going to be uh on a very nice panel, which is more linked to how uh building a destination, how brands and spaces turn places into experiences. Um so we'll have some um some examples of of uh I would say random places that have become now a destination just as after because of so that's as well interesting. Uh for sure, as I told you before, we'll have uh as well uh main important uh uh travel companies. Uh we have people from TRIT.com, uh we have Tui.com, we have the CEO of lastminute.com, we have as well Pangea, which is a very important Spanish uh travel agency growing uh very much importantly in Latam as well, which are going to share the trends, uh, how it's going to be, how the future looks like, how the geopolitical uh situation and for sure how they do um and play with AI internally.
SPEAKER_01:Really interesting. Now, one of the other reasons I know people attend conferences, it's not usually the reason I attend, is networking opportunities. I've never really been on the sales and business development side, but I know that is so important for many of my colleagues. And I've been to so many conferences where people didn't go to any session and they've just done meetings the entire time. So knowing that's a huge motivation, and I'm still learning from that because in our events, I've always tried to gear it around the content. So clearly that has been a huge focus for you, and that's for me. I want to just go to session after session and learn from other amazing leaders in this field and be able to then apply that. That's always been my desire of going to conferences. But knowing that there's a lot of people out there that would be coming to this event for networking opportunities, tell us a little bit what uh you've planned for them.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so there are a lot of networking uh possibilities, as you said, no, between the uh I don't know how the name in English, but in Spain, we do between the corridors for sure. Then we have some which are lunches, uh, specific lunches uh which are just dedicated and and that can be as well their specific technological tours that you can book and attend so that you can visit and check uh the exhibitors. We have a very nice welcome party which is sponsored by Sightseeing. Um on the first day, we have as well um specific evening where we are going to give away uh tourism innovation awards prices uh because we we have uh we have several companies that uh just applied for it. So there's as well, as you said, um just besides the content, which has been my focus the last three months, I'm totally the same. So when I just joined the confidence, I'm just more looking as well into finding the way just to give the maximum possibilities of networking.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. And if we think about kind of, I guess, the three big reasons that people would attend TIS, I'm keen to get your take on that. I know it's hard to try and narrow it down to three because you even have sessions designed for travel agencies. So it's like you know, you have tour operators there, you have hotels, you have startups, you've got such a broad cross-section of the travel industry. And so clearly to me, one of the big opportunities is to learn, to meet other people. But what would you say in putting this agenda together and the whole event over three days? What would be some of the three biggest reasons for people who are trying to decide whether or not they're going to be able to uh to join us this year or plan for future years? What would be the main drivers for them attending TIS?
SPEAKER_02:I would say that the as you said, the diversity. So we're trying to approach um this event, which again it's technology, innovation, sustainability, but we are really covering, I would say, the whole industry, and and for sure we're just uh having this full agenda. There's a way of of the opportunity to really learn and to share. And we are going to as well the sessions, the way they are uh organized and planned there as well to share success stories, but as well, maybe not only success stories, as well as fail stories or things that didn't work. We want to make to we don't want to be like again a new AI event or just to share. We all know AI is here, is everywhere. Uh but you would be surprised how how much how much or how uh nothing so really companies are a very different type of levels of of uh AI usage, for example, or and uh I don't know. I we've been trying to to to to gather and to to get the maximum great content coming from different type of experts. That's why we reach you. Uh, for example, in terms of innovation trends and EI from uh Canada. We have an expert in um regenerational uh regener regeneration.
SPEAKER_00:Regenerative tourism, yes, exactly. Yeah, thank you for you. I wish I could speak Spanish. That's easy, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's an English word I could do, but yeah, I can there's many Spanish words I can't get my uh she's uh she's from Ireland and she's been uh she's as well uh um uh she often speaks at world uh travel market as well. Yeah, uh so we have as well for regarding the hospital in the industry, we have the all the big hotel chains, they're high at Intercontinental, but as well. We do have several sessions for the small and independent hotels with low budgets. So I would say the diversity and and yeah, a very good mix of uh of speakers, national, but as well uh a lot of internationals.
SPEAKER_01:And if there's anyone listening to this that is somewhere in the world, I mean we're listeners on 125 countries, and so there likely will be some people that although they'd want to come, it's a you know, the uh the ticket itself is affordable, uh, but the destination, the timing is just uh they can't fit it into their schedule. Is there any way for them to still participate remotely or at least stay up to speed with what's happening, either being registered to your newsletter or your social channels?
SPEAKER_02:What would be yeah, for sure. They need to follow us uh uh you know on on social media, on LinkedIn and so on. And there's as well the way after after leaving everything uh for sure as a tech event, uh to this is quite strong over there, so auditoriums, everything is recorded, everything is translated. So if the session is in English, for sure it's as well translated, automatically translated in other languages, and everything is recorded, and there's as well the possibility afterwards through a very um minimum price, just to get the sessions there and just to be able to reach them. Because we've been trying to, I had to say no to fantastic speakers as well that could not attend and wanted to do this virtually. And well, we tried to have everyone um, let's say physically uh together. Uh, but for sure, if anyone cannot attend or just cannot join us in this edition, uh he or she will be able to download the sessions and and listen to them afterwards.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I asked because it's it's a magical combination when you can do both, and I don't mean like a hybrid event, I just mean that you know there is something very special about being together in person. It's certainly what we're gonna do with our event for next year, and even this year at our AI Summit, we're gonna have a get together the second night to bring people together. And we've been doing more in-person activity, and it highlights just how powerful the in-real life experience is. But to your point about the fact that there's people that just can't get there, uh, it's important to make sure that there's still opportunities for them to stay connected and informed. And the thing that made me laugh too, Brischet, was that when you mentioned to me about the translation, I thought, oh my goodness, I speak so fast, I'm gonna have to slow down my English.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's that's something I told you that first day. I'm getting I'm now getting used to.
SPEAKER_00:I know I speak the amazing thing though, and this is like that I hear from a number of people when they're listening to our episode, they speed up.
SPEAKER_01:I'm like, I think I already speak at 1.5, but many people increase the speed. And so uh nevertheless, I will make sure that I do slow down and weave in um some some of my limited Spanish as well. But the uh the other thing I wanted to ask you, you know, for future planning, is that is the event always in Seville at the same time? So for people who are listening to this, potentially even after the event has happened, um, what are the future opportunities to participate?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. So this is always um this has been always based the I would say last week of or between the last week of October. That's more or less of the between the 20th and and the just always before world travel market. That's normally how, and uh and it I think that the goal is to to remain this. It's not that easy to find a good slot among all these events that are just uh going on. Um, the idea so far is just to keep in Sevilla, but we are as well potentially considering uh why not uh to to bring this event to another place in the world in the future. That's not something we we have yet planned, but why not?
SPEAKER_01:Fantastic. Yeah. Well, I'm certainly looking forward to being there. I can't wait to experience it for the first time. I do want to make sure that all of our listeners do know all the ways to connect with you and to be able to learn more about the event. I've obviously mentioned in my introduction and my closing in a moment, but just to make sure that TIS Globalsummit.com is the main website you want to go to to grab your tickets, check out more details about the event. And as Bridget mentioned, they've got a fantastic LinkedIn page as well, which is TIS Sevilla. So you make sure that you're following that for updates. Uh where else would you suggest that people follow Bridget? And what else should we leave them with before we are in Seville together?
SPEAKER_02:I would say, as you said, uh, just to follow us in LinkedIn, just to have a look into the website, which is quite uh complete, and they'll have and we have different types of passes. I would like to highlight again what you said at the beginning. Um the cost of the tickets, taking into account the level of uh participants we are having and the level of the sessions, um, I would say is very much affordable. So um, and as well, Sevilla, it's as well an affordable city and and fantastic place to be. So uh I would recommend and and and uh yeah just uh everyone to to attend, uh knowing that it's it's not that easy always to to to reach to Sevilla from from other parts of the world, but uh I would say it's it's worth it to considerate it.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely. It's well worth the trip to Seville, but even more so for TIS. And the date the dates, just to make sure everyone's looking at their calendar, is October 22nd to 24th. Those are the three days.
SPEAKER_00:That's it.
SPEAKER_01:And yeah, I can't wait to be there. Thank you again for the opportunity, Bridget. I'm looking forward to seeing you again in person, meeting the rest of the team, being a part of this special event, and hopefully a uh uh long-term collaboration because I'm uh I'm really excited.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, hopefully, yes. Yeah, I'm looking forward as well. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks so much for joining us on this special event preview of the Tourism Innovation Summit in Seville, Spain. I hope many of you now are inspired to join us October 22nd to 24th. I'm really looking forward to giving my keynote, moderating a panel, and seeing so many great friends that will be attending for the first time. And if you want more information, you can check out TISGlobalsummit.com to register. If you're listening to after the event, then you can plan for next year because as you heard from Bridget, the plan is to bring the event back to Seville, Spain again next year. And if you're interested in more spotlight episodes from travel trends, whether they be events, destinations, executives, or companies, be sure to check out traveltrends.com slash spotlights. Until next time, safe travels.
