"What's Next - Innovating Tourism", an event organized by NEST - Centro de Inovação do Turismo, has an excellent line-up for thinking about the future of a strategic sector of the Portuguese economy. From the BTL Labs stage, dedicated to Innovation, dozens of leading experts will share their best ideas and practices.

Lisbon, March 11, 2022 - Sustainability, people and digitalization are critical themes for the future of tourism, which will be developed by experts and joined by an outside view of the sector to further open up horizons. "With What's Next - Innovating Tourism", innovation has its own stage for the first time at the Lisbon Tourism Exchange (BTL) 2022.

From March 16 to 18, from the "BTL Labs" stage - run by NEST - Centro de Inovação do Turismo de Portugal - more than 40 leading experts will debate the future of tourism and share best ideas and practices. Alongside the agenda at FIL, in Lisbon, the event also includes a series of four sessions, taking place outside BTL, which bring the vision of leaders from other areas of society and the economy to Tourism.

In this series of talks, special guests, who are outside tourism and have a point of view on it, will contribute their vision for the future of the sector. Sustainability, Digital Revolution, Health and Tourism and Ideas that Change the World are the topics for the sessions that will be available on NEST's YouTube channel.

So, in anticipation of BTL, on March 14, Tiago Pitta e CunhaCEO of the Oceano Azul Foundation and Pessoa Prize 2021, and João Wengrovius MenesesSecretary General of the Business Council for Sustainable Development, address the issue of Sustainability.

The 15th will be dedicated to Digital Revolution with the interventions of Inês Drummond BorgesCTO of Soane Sierra, and António CâmaraChairman of YGroup. On the 17th it will be the turn of Germano de Sousadoctor, professor and health manager, and Maria de Belém Roseira, former Minister of Health, to debate the impact of health on tourism.

The cycle of sessions closes on March 18 with a discussion on Ideas that change the world, in charge of Juliet Kinsman, Travel & Eco Tips Condé Naste, and Joana VasconcelosArtist. All sessions take place between 18h00 and 20h00.

Innovation Stage

On the BTL stage, between the 14h30 and 16h30 on March 16, the digital revolution brings together tour operators, technology companies and a number of startups that are changing the rules and reinventing solutions. On the 17th, the talent management and training the next generation of professionals will be the theme of the event, featuring recruiters, trainers and professionals from the sector. The answers to sustainability solutions on a mobile planet will be the theme on March 18, with active voices from society and the sector.

The president of Turismo de Portugal, Luís Araújo, and the executive director of NEST, Roberto Antunes, will host the opening sessions of "BTL Labs" over the three days.

March 16, 14h30-16h30: Digitization

• WOW - CULTURAL INNOVATION - Adrian Bridge, CEO Fladgate Partnership
• THE AGE OF BIOMETRICS HAS ARRIVED - Aaron Beeson, Director of Innovation ANA
• IMPACT OF 5G ON TOURISM - Miguel Adrego, NOS new business and innovation team leader
• EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AT THE SERVICE OF TOURISM - Rute Cardoso, Microsoft Public Sector Account Executive
• CALL TOURISM - Miguel Barbosa, Investment Director Portugal Ventures
• THE POWER OF ANALYTICS IN CITIES - José Maria Garrett, NOS Analytics Business Leader
• CAN BLOCKCHAIN REINVENT TOURISM? - Fred Antunes, CEO RealFevr

March 17, 14h30-16h30: People

• DIVERSITY, ETHICS AND VISION: TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP - Chitra Stern, President United Lisbon International School and Martinhal Group
• DIGITAL SKILLS TO IMPROVE AUTONOMY AT WORK - António Neves, Industry Manager Google
• TRAINING FOR ALL: UPGRADE 2.0 PROGRAM - Elisabete Mendes, Director of the Department of Pedagogical Management and Innovation Escolas Turismo Portugal
• FINANCING OPPORTUNITIES IN TOURISM - Gonçalo Regalado, Marketing Director - Corporate and SME Millenium BCP
• HOW TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN TALENT IN 2022 - José Paiva, Co-founder and President Landing Jobs
• THE POWER OF DATA IS YOURS! - Ana Casaca, GALP Innovation Director
• PORTUGAL WITHOUT BARRIERS: INCLUSIVE TOURISM - Nuno Leal, President Accessible Portugal
• Accessible Portugal

March 18th, 14h30-16h30: Sustainability

• THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABILITY RELIES ONTOURSIMS- Juliet Kinsman, Condé Nast Sustainability Editor
• THE JOURNEY - Luis Araújo, President Turismo de Portugal
• SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ROLE OF BUSINESS IN SOCIETY - Margarida Couto, CEO Vda | GRACE
• HUMAN SUSTAINABILITY, A NEW DIMENSION - Ricardo Leitão, Visiting Assistant Professor and Executive Director Nova Medical School
• SUSTAINABLE FINANCING IN TOURISM - Paulo Rodrigues Brito, Coordinating Director - Senior Manager Banco BPI
• LEADING CHANGE IN MOBILITY - Pedro Mourisca, CEO Via Verde
• CLEAN & SAFE: FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTURE - Leonor Picão, Coordinating Director Turismo de Portugal
• LAUNCH OF THE TERMAS DE PORTUGAL CAMPAIGN - ESCAPADINHA - Vítor Leal, President Termas de Portugal

"What's Next - Innovating Tourism" is organized by the The Next Big Ideainnovation platform, and has SIC and Expresso as partners in media.

All the information is available at https://www.whatsnexttourism.pt/.

BTL 2022 is betting on new sectors, such as innovation, culture, wine tourism and nature tourism, but it is also continuing areas such as BTL LAB.

The BTL LAB, run by NEST - Innovation Center of Turismo de Portugalis a space dedicated to showcasing companies working in the tourism innovation sector. As well as showcasing startups, the LAB is an important stage for debate, trends and the exchange of experiences on the subject of innovation and technology.

Its dynamization is based on complementary initiatives with the aim of thinking, debating and applying the future of tourism, an industry that is looking for resurgence in a post-pandemic readaptation and which, in the Portuguese case, corresponds to almost 20% of GDP.

 

About NEST:

Private non-profit association, founded on February 18, 2019 by eight entities - Turismo de Portugal, ANA Aeroportos, Brisa Via Verde, Google, Microsoft, Millennium BCP, NOS and BPI. Its strategic pillars are cultural innovation, digital knowledge and pilot projects for the sector.

About BTL:

Promoted by AIP Foundation, a 33rd edition of BTL - from March 16 to 20 - aims to reinforce its status as the largest tourism event held in Portugal, making a decisive contribution to the recovery of this important sector of the Portuguese economy. It brings together more than 1,400 exhibitors and more than 70,000 visitors, 35,000 of whom are professionals.