BBC News broadcaster Sarah Smith has been named as keynote speaker at this year’s Advantage Conference in Cadiz.
Smith will use her speech to reflect on the evolution of the travel industry over the last 40 years – since The Advantage Travel Partnership was formed.
Smith has covered Scotland’s independence referendum, Barack Obama’s election as US President, the Madrid train bombings and the trial of Saddam Hussain.
Before joining the BBC full-time, she presented current affairs programme Scotland 2014 and was a business correspondent for Channel 4 News.
The conference, themed ‘Vivolution’, is to take place May 17-20 in the Andalusian province of Sancti Petri. It will feature networking sessions for both leisure and business travel members, expert speakers and presentations.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership said: “Sarah Smith will be one of the great female speakers in our programme line up for this year’s conference. We are committed to increasing the number of women who speak across all Advantage events to echo the gender-balance in our industry, which we also reflected at our last Advantage Business Travel Symposium where more than half of our speakers were female.
“Sarah will provide a fascinating perspective on the impact of politics on the travel industry, as well as the challenges of working in a fast-moving industry. Sarah’s understanding of the political process also enables her to be in a position to influence and articulate the views of travellers all around the world, especially as we may be in a post-Brexit era by conference.”