Travel Needs Some Unexpected Company.

The traveller has already left the silo

Travel is extraordinarily resilient. Its ability to recover, adapt and rebuild deserves enormous credit. Its speed of change can be another matter. Sometimes it feels like asking an ocean liner to perform a three-point turn. I say this with affection, having spent a good part of my career on the bridge, waving my arms. Airlines talk to airlines. Hotels talk to hotels. Destinations talk to destinations. We have built an industry around the traveller, yet too often we discuss its future without inviting everyone who shapes the traveler’s world into the room.

Familiar conferences bring familiar faces together to discuss familiar problems. Meanwhile, the traveller moves through everyone’s territory: technology, financial services, transport, identity systems, energy, public policy and local communities. Decisions made across those sectors shape travel every day. We need to engage with the people making them. We also need to look beyond our own markets. A concern that dominates discussion in Europe may look quite different in China, the Gulf or the Americas. Understanding why can change how we respond.

From an idea to a departure date

These ideas had been forming for more than a decade when, in January 2026, an opportunity to develop an executive programme with Alibaba gave them a practical expression. By May, GRN was bringing a delegation to Shanghai and Hangzhou, including a programme at Alibaba’s headquarters. A young enterprise, a substantial undertaking and several time zones. It all sounded perfectly reasonable in January. Exploring AI alongside commerce, payments and the wider digital ecosystem made the connections tangible. Direct conversations with people working within that ecosystem brought fresh perspectives, and better questions. Paris carries those questions forward.

This is not about creating another conference circuit. It is about building a network of conversations that would not otherwise happen, across borders, disciplines and generations, and turning those conversations into meaningful collaboration.

Five AI futures, one traveller

AI is currently the shiny object. And, to be fair, it is exceptionally shiny.

It promises to understand our preferences, plan the perfect journey and rearrange everything when something goes wrong. An assistant that recognizes a “short connection” as a potential Olympic event would certainly have my attention. But beneath the convenience are decisions with lasting consequences. Who determines which destinations we see? Whose information does an AI assistant trust? Where do our identity and payment details go? Who takes responsibility when the systems fail? If AI begins making decisions on behalf of travellers, who gets to influence the choices it offers them?

The United States, Europe, China, the Middle East and India are developing AI through different combinations of investment, policy, infrastructure, talent and ambition. Each contains enormous diversity, but comparing their approaches helps us understand the systems travellers and businesses will encounter.

Paris brings those perspectives together, then examines their implications for identity, data, payments, mobility, destinations and human agency. Technology leaders, tourism businesses, policymakers, researchers and students will contribute. Disagreement is welcome. After this many speaker briefings, unanimous agreement would be deeply suspicious.