Travel Industry Events
The Traveller Safety Lab
The Traveller Safety Lab is Safer Tourism Foundation's inaugural forum exploring how travel safety, done well, can benefit your whole business, and the customers you serve.
Through a combination of expert presentations, thought-provoking panels and open discussion, we'll examine how travel safety impacts People, Profit and Places.
19 October 2026 | 9:30am – 6pm
DWF Law, 20 Fenchurch Street, London
In partnership with
INFORMATION
About the event
Travel safety gets treated as a compliance box-ticking exercise far too often.
The Traveller Safety Lab promises to be a stimulating exploration of how getting travel safety right can deliver significant benefits across travel businesses. From those that audit risk and safety processes, to the individuals designing travel products and itineraries, all the way through to the teams selling and marketing travel services.
We hope attendees will leave thinking about travel safety differently.
Throughout the day, we'll cover:
Why travellers behave differently on holiday
Why safety looks different for different traveller demographics
How using safety incident data to improve your travel offering positively impacts brand reputation and customer loyalty
How safety contributes directly to more inclusive travel
The inextricable link between safety and sustainability
When the worst happens and the lasting effects
This day has travel safety professionals at its heart, but the content reaches beyond a single specialist function. It's for travel agents, product developers, customer experience and operations teams, and senior industry leaders who are open to seeing travel safety as a whole-business opportunity, not just a compliance activity.
If you're someone who welcomes new ways of thinking about, and acting on, safety in travel, you should be in the room.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
TICKET INFORMATION
Pledge Partners FREE (with valid discount code)
Affiliate Partners £47.50 (with valid discount code)
General Industry £96.65 (includes booking fee)
Tickets include refreshments, lunch and a drinks reception.
If you qualify for a discount code but have not received one, please contact us: stephanie.boyle@safertourism.org.uk
Agenda and Content Programme
(timings subject to change)
09:30 – 10:00 Arrival and registration
10:00 – 10:10 Welcome from Safer Tourism Foundation Chair, Paul Carter
10:10 – 10:45 The Big Picture
Kathy Atkinson presents findings from the Travel Behaviour Risk Index, key themes from Safer Tourism Foundation incident data and biannual traveller research. Kathy will introduce the Holiday Head phenomenon, asking ‘why travellers behave differently on holiday’ and its impact on the travel sector.
PEOPLE
10:45 – 11:20 Panel: There’s no such thing as ‘the older traveller’
Older travellers make up a significant proportion of UK outbound travel volumes, increasingly travelling into their 80s and 90s. But this is not one homogeneous demographic. "The older traveller" isn't one person; it's a hugely diverse group, with specific health and safety risks that the industry doesn't always plan for. The reality is that the people designing and selling travel are often in a very different life stage from those buying and experiencing it.
This panel brings together marketing, operational and insurance perspectives to explore where travel can be made safer, and more inclusive, for travellers in later life.
Moderator: Danny Callaghan (LATA)
Panelists: Garreth Hines (Specialist Holiday Group), Debbie Marshall (Silver Marketing Association), Fraser Lyall (the ABI)
11:20 – 11:35 Coffee break
11:35 – 12:20 Panel: A different risk landscape - Designing safer travel for women
Women face a different risk landscape when they travel, and safety shapes many of their decisions, from where they go and who they book with to how they travel and what they do when they get there. This panel explores what travelling safely and with confidence looks like for women, and how designing for safety builds more inclusive travel. It also asks what companies and destinations need in place, from staff training to response procedures, if the worst happens.
Moderator: Sophie Lam (the I paper)
Panelists: Alessandra LoTufo Alonso (Women in Travel CIC), Rhonda Carrier (travel writer and author), Joanne Muccio (CCP)
12:20– 12:55 Fireside chat: When the worst happens
A conversation with Cathy Foley and Calum MacDonald on the tragic realities of when a trip goes wrong. Cathy will share the story of her son Hudson Foley, who loved to travel and died of carbon monoxide poisoning in South America at just 24. Calum will talk about surviving methanol poisoning in Laos in 2024, which resulted in him losing his sight. Both Cathy and Calum are working to channel their experiences into positive legacies: the Pack Safe Appeal and the MethaKnow campaign.
Moderator: Katherine Atkinson
12:55 – 13:00 Morning recap
Stephanie Boyle to present the key takeaways from the morning
13:00 – 13:50 Lunch and networking
PROFIT
13:50 – 14:10 Presentation: The claims in numbers
DWF Partner Garreth Thomas shares the safety issues that become legal issues.
14:10 – 14:50 Panel: The Safer Tourism Pledge in Action
Since its inception in 2019, the Safer Tourism Pledge aims to promote a stringent approach to traveller risk, health and safety. Hear from Safer Tourism Pledge Partners about the importance of tracking safety incident data and actioning improvements, and how this contributes to customer loyalty and strong business reputation.
Moderator: Andrew McQuarrie, Travel Weekly
Panelists: Marc Jordan (TUI), Charlie Newman (Intrepid), Katherine Atkinson (Safer Tourism Foundation)
14:50 - 15:00 Presentation: Incident management or customer service?
Preventing the small stuff that goes wrong on holiday from turning into a big mess often comes down to good customer communication. Pharos Response founder Julian Penney discusses the importance of the 'human approach' to all incident follow-up, no matter how minor the incident.
15:00 - 15:15 Coffee break
PLACES
15:15 – 16:05 Panel: The ripple effect – Safety, Sustainability and Place
Safety and sustainability in travel are often seen as separate conversations, each operating in their own silos within a business. But they are more linked than we think, for better and worse. This panel explores that interconnectivity from both sides: the positive ripple effect on destinations when safety is done well, from higher local supplier standards to less pressure on emergency resources, and the growing safety challenges created by climate change and unsustainable tourism, from extreme weather events to overcrowded, polluted destinations
Moderator: Richard Hammond (Green Traveller, It’s a Journey podcast)
Panelists: John Telfer (Sanderson Phillips), Rebecca Armstrong (Travel Forward), Prue Stone (Sustainability consultant)
16:05 – 16:20 Presentation: Introducing SIID – Scaling travel safety incident data analysis and insight
Kathy Atkinson and Maria Antidormi introduce the Safety Incident Intelligence Dashboard, Safer Tourism’s pilot incident data analysis platform, developed in partnership with Truth Consulting, helping to uncover and understand emerging risks in travel.
16:20 – 16:30 Closing remarks – Katherine Atkinson
16:30 – 18:00 Drinks and networking