Talkshow: how are we going to make our industry more sustainable? (NL)

During this Talkshow, Rens de Jong will discuss with the below mentioned table guests how we are going to make our industry more sustainable. What is possible and what is not? Can things really be done differently in both the long and short term and how critical are we really to ourselves?

Moderator: Rens de Jong

Guests
– Elke Dens, Global director of programs at The Travel Foundation – Teach Marketing at Fac. Economy of University of Antwerp -former Marketing director for VisitFlanders & chair marketing at European Travel Commission.
Elke Dens was one of the driving forces to lead VisitFlanders into ‘Travel to tomorrow’, a vision on tourism that is based on regeneration. As a former chairwoman of the Marketing Group of The European Travel Commission she aligned the marketingdirectors from 28 countries in Europe around one sustainable strategy for brand Europe. After COVID’19 she decided to take a few years of leave from the government and support other destinations in their transition as a consultant. Three days a week she works as the global director of programs of NGO The Travel Foundation. She volunteers for FairBNB, and is a proud board member of The Impact Travel Alliance, based in New York. She recently published the book ‘Tourism is dead. Long live the traveller’.

– Elske Doets, Entrepreneur, founder, speaker, inspirator, writer & Businesswoman 2017.
In addition to being the founder of the Young Lady Business Academy (non-profit) and the socially engaged start-up Buddybold, Elske Doets has been the owner of Doets Travel for 20 years. She has an independent spirit and a clear view of the future of society and the economy. She will challenge you to say goodbye to ingrained thought patterns. She also translates complex issues into easily understood missions for individual people, giving them, often for the first time in their lives, a clear direction for their actions and conduct. Elske does not shy away from difficult discussions on contentious issues such as climate and over-tourism, while remaining focused on collaboration, solutions and pace.

– Ties Joosten, climate journalist at research platform Follow the Money.
Ties Joosten (1984) is a climate journalist at research platform Follow the Money. He writes about all things that emit a lot of greenhouse gases: power plants, the Port of Rotterdam, the aviation industry and intensive livestock farming. Joosten is the author of the book De Blauwe Fabel: Waarom we de KLM al een eeuw lang tegen elke prijs in de lucht houden (The Blue Fable: Why we have kept KLM in the air at any cost for a century).

– Mattijs ten Brink, CEO Sunweb group
Born as Dutch citizen in 1963, Mattijs started his career in logistics & transportation after his study of Business Economics in Amsterdam. Eventually he joined Air-France-KLM and held various management positions in operations and commercial, to become CCO in 2010. In 2013 he made the switch from B-2-B to B-2-C, as CEO of Transavia, the Dutch low cost airline. After more than six years he was asked to join Sunweb Group as their CEO in 2019, a position he still holds today.

– Arjan Kers, Managing Director TUI Nederland & Voorzitter ANVR
Travel and multicultural learning have been in my DNA for decades. Having lived, studied and worked all over the world has made me appreciate a flexible mindset and created a constant hunger for exceeding my limits.

Working at TUI means more to me than simply doing well. Even as one of the leading companies in travel and tourism, I believe there’s so much more we can do and build on together. Young people are the future of our company. I firmly believe that what they make of it will be the TUI of tomorrow – one that can sustainably grow and evolve in the decades to come, hand in hand with new ways of working and thinking to push it forward.

As someone who has been able to enjoy a career across many different countries, I’ve learned to adapt and to learn from every culture and person I’ve encountered. One thing that stuck with me is the value of maintaining an entrepreneurial attitude regardless of the size of the organization you work in. We all need to continuously challenge ourselves to be better and be open to learning from each other. These are some of the lessons I hope to convey to my team and the talent that joins us in the future. In the Human to Human era, I believe that – contrary to popular belief – AI can’t replace the personalized, human knowledge and tact that travel agencies have. It can, however, enable us to predict the needs of our customers and arm us with the insight to offer an even more personal and relevant end-to-end holiday experience.