business Essential news, comment and analysis CONVENTION PREVIEW


Abta’s Mark Tanzer: ‘How do you build a


personal relationship with customers in an automated world,


and how do you build trust in a brand?’


Tanzer puts truth and trust at heart of 2018 convention


Abta’s Travel Convention in Seville will focus on trust. Chief executive Mark Tanzer explains why to Ian Taylor


‘Truth, Trust and the Future of Experts’ will be the theme of Abta’s 2018 Travel Convention, with chief executive Mark Tanzer saying: “People talk about the erosion of trust in politicians and experts, so where do you go? Who do you trust?


“Fake news entered the


vocabulary with the election of Donald Trump, but we see it more and more. We’ll talk about these issues and how they impact your business – how you build confidence and trust.”


72 travelweekly.co.uk 17 May 2018 He said: “At the industry level,


we’ve talked about the potential of big data for ages. But this year we’ve seen the challenges of big data around Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.” Data-analytics firm Cambridge


Analytica used personal data from 50-million-plus Facebook users to target US voters with political advertisements and boasted of involvement in fake news and dirty tricks. Facebook had known about the data breach since 2015 but did nothing until it was exposed.


Tanzer said: “I wasn’t surprised


[by the revelations] because it is what Facebook does. It’s how it monetises a free service. “But [the story] put up in lights the serious ethical and consumer- handling issues around this. “Facebook’s model is the way


advertising agencies increasingly think of getting messages across. How are these techniques being applied and how do people feel about that?


“Cambridge Analytica threw


up the question ‘What are the permissions you have?’ You can’t just assume consent. The new GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] rules are of a piece


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