Travel Industry Conferences & Summits 2026–2027

In date order: Tourism Leadership Conference (27–28 Oct 2026, Sun City), Global Wellness Summit (10–13 Nov 2026, Phuket), Phocuswright Conference (17–19 Nov 2026, Hollywood), USTOA Annual Conference & Marketplace (30 Nov – 4 Dec 2026, San Francisco), Arival 360 Bilbao (13–15 Apr 2027, Bilbao) and Adventure Travel World Summit (4–7 Oct 2027, Almería). Each event page carries the venue, what the show is for and hotels nearby.

At a trade show you work a stand or a table and the point is meetings — WTM, ITB and ILTM all run that way. At a conference the point is the programme: you are there for the sessions and the people you meet around them. Skift Global Forum, for example, is built around Skift Stage panels, roundtables and breakout sessions.

It depends what you sell. Skift Global Forum and Phocuswright cover strategy, distribution and technology for the wider industry. Adventure Travel World Summit and AdventureELEVATE serve the adventure market, Arival covers tours and activities, USTOA the North American tour operator market, and Mountain Travel Symposium the ski trade.

They work differently from a show. You will take fewer meetings than at a trade show and get more context — where the market is heading, what buyers are being told, who is moving. Reps who go tend to go for the relationships built around the sessions rather than for appointment volume.

Conferences generally charge a delegate fee, and the rate depends on the event, the edition and when you book. The organiser sets it, so each event page links to the organiser’s registration page where one is published — check there for what applies this year.

Know who you want to meet before you go, and capture what was said while it is fresh. RepBud is built for that — log a conversation on your phone between sessions and it files against the right contact, with the next step kept where you will see it. RepBud is designed to assist, not replace, your professional judgement.