Webinar

Travel Impacts from the War in Iran – Resilience, risks and regionalisation in APAC and Europe

20 May 2026

3 sessions:

20 May 2026 – 10.00am BST (London)
20 May 2026 – 10.00am HKT (Hong Kong)
20 May 2026 – 12.00pm EST (New York)

online

Recent geopolitical events have impacted global travel flows, both directly via airspace closures and more widely through pricing and sentiment impacts. This has raised uncertainty and magnified downside risks in the near-term.

Nevertheless, we remain confident in a growth outlook, with consumers continuing to prioritise travel experiences, and reflecting the established resilience of the tourism sector in rebounding from negative events. There are opportunities for some destinations via greater regionalisation. European destinations may benefit if a high proportion of the typical long-haul outbound travel remains closer to home, while Chinese travellers – typically among the most risk-averse – provide opportunities for destinations within APAC. In this webinar, we will discuss sources of current uncertainty and explore risks and opportunities on the horizon.

This webinar is being held on our new platform, ON24. If you do not receive your confirmation email, please check your junk and spam folders.

Speakers

Helen McDermott

Helen is a Lead Economist within Tourism Economics, with more than a decade of experience in economic modelling and consultancy.

She specializes in tourism forecasting, tourism economic impact analysis including Tourism Satellite Account analysis and providing bespoke scenario analysis which caters to a range of client needs. She also manages the Global Travel Service (GTS) and Global City Travel (GCT) services, which provide timely forecasts of bilateral tourism flow across 185 countries and 300 cities, as well as other core tourism indicators including overnight stays and tourism spending.

In addition to her regular forecasting work, Helen also plays a lead role in Tourism Economic’ consultancy services. Key projects that Helen has been involved in include the Oxford Economics Economic Impact Research, produced on behalf of the World Travel & Tourism Company which measures the contribution of the travel & tourism sector to the wider economy across 185 countries worldwide. Helen is also responsible for producing quarterly forecasts for the hotel industry across a range of markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia in partnership with STR. Further, Helen plays a lead role in providing ongoing support ranging across a spectrum of tourism initiatives with Qatar Tourism Authority, which includes providing forecasts of travel demand to Qatar and detailed accommodation forecasting to aid QTA in developing key policy initiatives.

Director of Global Forecasting, Tourism Economics