Dolores Semeraro moderates the virtual gathering of speakers from Season 4 of Truth Behind Travel Podcast in "Women Leading The Way: the Global Travel & Tourism Roundtable" in collaboration with the Institute of Tourism

Watch the video: "Women Leading The Way: the Global Travel & Tourism Roundtable"

Drawing on their diverse expertise and lived experience, this experts-led discussion weaves bold ideas with practical insights, exploring how tourism can move beyond sustainability and towards regeneration.

In a spirit of collaboration and candor, they challenge dominant narratives, share lessons from the field, and collectively reimagine travel as a force for positive impact on communities, ecosystems, and the industry at large.

Leading speakers of the Roundtable:

Carmen Roberts - BBC travel journalist and travel media expert

Tina O'Dwyer - Founder of The Tourism Space

Vanessa Karell - Founder of Greether

Anne de Jong - co-founder of The Good Tourism Institute

Sarah Payne - Director of Impact at Untours Foundation

Lola Akinmade - Author, Travel Media Personality of the Year, Reporter

Jennine Cohen and Catherine Gallagher - Founders of Women Travel Leaders

Iris Serbanescu - Founder of WMNS WORK

Caterina Varao - Founder of Unique Stays

Sonia Gottlebe - Sustainable Tourism Advocate, Madagascar

Host of Truth Behind Travel Podcast, Dolores Semeraro is a sought-after international tourism keynote speaker and sustainable tourism marketing professional.

Dolores actively works in the tourism and travel conference space as a keynote speaker and moderator, gracing the stages of international tourism summits and trade shows.

As a professional keynote speaker, Dolores’ speaking topics encompass sustainability in tourism, digital marketing and how to identify today’s traveler’s needs through technology and innovation.

5 years ago, Dolores launched her podcast show named ‘Truth Behind Travel Podcast’ where she regularly interviews tourism and travel industry leaders and representatives on how to rebuild the future of travel.

www.doloressemeraro.com

dolores@doloressemeraro.com

Instagram @dolores_semeraro

LinkedIn @dolores.sem

In today’s episode, as we all brace for what will be a busy year in travel and tourism, I took a little ‘fun’ time to observe the travel trends we will be witnessing in 2026.

Some were new, some others not so much, but it was good to bring them back to light – or like in trend n.7 to actually switch off that light.

Trends are signs of major shifts in people’s preferences, values, behaviors but the funny thing is that with them, new words come to life, which we use to define and describe the nature of the travel trends – so on today’s episode, we will observe 10 new words in the travel sphere that are underlying a significant travel trend worth of notice.

Bibliography of this episode's content is included in the transcript.

Host of Truth Behind Travel Podcast, Dolores Semeraro is a sought-after international tourism keynote speaker and sustainable tourism marketing professional.

Dolores actively works in the tourism and travel conference space as a keynote speaker and moderator, gracing the stages of international tourism summits and trade shows.

As a professional keynote speaker, Dolores’ speaking topics encompass sustainability in tourism, digital marketing and how to identify today’s traveler’s needs through technology and innovation.

5 years ago, Dolores launched her podcast show named ‘Truth Behind Travel Podcast’ where she regularly interviews tourism and travel industry leaders and representatives on how to rebuild the future of travel.

www.doloressemeraro.com

dolores@doloressemeraro.com

Instagram @dolores_semeraro

LinkedIn @dolores.sem

Welcome back to Truth Behind Travel Podcast!

Dolores Semeraro interviews the person leading the conference programme across the the World Travel Market Portfolio, in London and Dubai Brooke Gilbertson.

On today’s conversation we have gone through the digital, the physical, the relevancy and buzz of the conference space, to understand what keeps them going, what makes them successful - a space where people want to go and learn, be inspired, connect and grow - all this in the spirit of innovation, creativity and technology.

WTM London 4-6 November 2025

ATM Dubai 4-7 May 2026

Questions featured in this episode:

1. How is technology affecting the event industry today - what do you keep what do you not keep?

2. What is it that attendees can do at the show that can’t do by themselves?

3. How do you stay above the buzz words?

4. How do you ensure that there is genuine interaction with the content that is being delivered on stage?

5. How do you appeal to a more senior audience, the CEOs the trade show people?

6. stressing the point of DEA - how do you make sure that the conference topics and the trade show attendance are aligned?

7. Travel power theme - how did the concept of the theme came about?

Host of Truth Behind Travel Podcast, Dolores Semeraro is a sought-after international tourism keynote speaker and sustainable tourism marketing professional.

Dolores actively works in the tourism and travel conference space as a keynote speaker and moderator, gracing the stages of international tourism summits and trade shows.

As a professional keynote speaker, Dolores’ speaking topics encompass sustainability in tourism, digital marketing and how to identify today’s traveler’s needs through technology and innovation.

5 years ago, Dolores launched her podcast show named ‘Truth Behind Travel Podcast’ where she regularly interviews tourism and travel industry leaders and representatives on how to rebuild the future of travel.

www.doloressemeraro.com

dolores@doloressemeraro.com

Instagram @dolores_semeraro

LinkedIn @dolores.sem