FIRST KEYNOTE SPEECH
Distinguished Speaker: Professor Dr. Christopher Griffith
BSc, PhD , PGCFE, MIFST; Editor-in-Chief of British Food Journal, UK
Title: Travellers’ Diarrhoea: A Brand Experience Your Tourism Industry Does Not Want

Chris Griffith


Tourism is a highly competitive global market with destinations seeking individual tourists as well as corporate conferences and major sporting events. Customer decision making and the factors influencing it are increasingly important to marketers in a digital age. Risk aversion can be an important factor linking to brand trust, affect and loyalty.

Brand trust can be rooted in the results of perceived or actual previous personal experiences of consumers themselves or those of others. TD or travellers’ diarrhoea can negatively affect the brand experience of hotel/ resort chains and even geographical locations.

TD is recognized as a global issue and is the most common infection reported by international travellers. The proportion of travellers affected, can vary between 20-60+%, depending on their destination and countries have been divided up into high, medium and low risk. Other factors include the type of travel, the foods eaten, their preparation and the associated hygiene practices used. TD can cause financial problems for tour operators and hotels as well as in some cases countries, with those most frequently implicated being avoided by tourists.

TD is defined and its consequences discussed .Global patterns are compared with differences between South East Asia and other tourist destinations outlined. Using real life examples and case studies the process of deciding culpability and defences against compensation claims are explained. These are considered within a Malaysian context. The positive and negative role of social media in relation to TD and brand experience is examined

SECOND KEYNOTE SPEECH

Distinguished Speaker: Professor Dr. Kim Shyan Fam
Founder of MAG Scholar, Professor of Marketing, Professor at JUFE (Jilin, China)
Title: Chopstick Business in Asia

THIRD KEYNOTE SPEECH

Distinguished Speaker: Mr. Chris Weaver
Performance Marketer and Brand Builder, Director of Strategy MWI USA
Title:  Strategizing Digital Platform in Business, E-commerce, Education & Hospitality