It was a pleasure, as always, for our team to take part in WTCE’s Taste of Travel Theatre seminar programme, in partnership with Onboard Hospitality, at this week’s 2025 show in Hamburg.
Our Global Crew Engagement Manager, Anthony Carson, gave the crew perspective on the subject of whether AI is improving the customer experience or making it too impersonal, in the panel session ‘The Human Touch’, moderated by Joe Harvey.
In a lively discussion, Vimal Kumar Rai, Paul Bilham, Angie Mullen and Anthony shared their views, highlighting the current limitations of onboard connectivity and the potential for good quality data and predictive analytics to enhance onboard hospitality and free up crew to focus on customers; but agreeing overwhelmingly on the importance of the human touch for safety, welcoming passengers, helping those with accessibility needs, delivering onboard hospitality and enhancing customer experience.
On day two, our Head of Retail Americas, Mir Khan, participated in ‘Mile High Marketplace’, a discussion on transforming passengers into shoppers, moderated by Maryann Simson. Vimal Kumar Rai, Kai Kosicki, Sharon Huetson and Mir discussed the cultural differences between onboard shoppers, buyer personas and behaviour, the importance of crew engagement and incentives, the role technology plays in onboard retail and the value of pre-order and loyalty programmes.
Our thanks to Anthony and Mir, for representing us at these seminars. Thanks to everyone we met at the show for some great meetings, insights and connections. Well done to everyone at WTCE and Onboard Hospitality for another great show!
(This article was re-published here from Retail inMotion’s LinkedIn profile, following the launch of Onboard Retail as a stand-alone entity in July 2026.)
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