Hundreds of the travel industry’s most-forward-thinking executives will gather for our second annualSkift Forum Europe in Berlin on April 26.In just a few years, Skift's Forums — the largest creative business gatherings in the global travel industry — have become what media, speakers, and attendees have called the “TED Talks of travel.” After last year's European tourism comeback, Skift Forum Europe 2018 will take place at Cafe Moskau in Berlin.

Large events are everything to a destination and many tourism boards spend a lot of time and money working to attract meetings and conventions. But when that destination is a political epicenter like Washington, D.C., some events like the March For Our Lives anti-gun violence protest scheduled for Saturday show make it easy for tourism officials. Washington, D.C. is expecting about half a million anti-gun violence protestors this weekend who will be calling for gun control reform.

Volaris, the Mexican ultra-low-cost airline that once thrilled investors with a model that focused on persuading passengers to switch from buses to planes, has no plans to change its core strategy, even though its stock has lost more than 60 percent of its value during the past two years. The market, “keeps on growing,” CEO Enrique Beltranena said in an interview. “In general, traffic in domestic and international is growing at a faster pace than GDP.

TUI Group is looking to bolster its cruise division by adding another ship as part of an effort to modernize and expand its fleet. The multinational tourism company, which isn’t necessarily thought of as a big cruise operator, will have a fleet of 18 ships by 2023. By comparison, Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise operator, has 103 ships across nine brands.

Now this is slow travel. Some might call barging river cruising downsized, but it’s really its own unique sector of the water travel market. And while barge travel might largely be a French phenomenon, it is growing in popularity. “France is the epicenter of classic canal barging, with about 85 percent of the product based there,” saidStephanie Sack, the self-described marketing maven of Chicago-based Barge Lady Cruises, a barge travel brokerage.

At Skift, we’re keeping a good thing going by hosting our flagshipSkift Global Forum at the iconic Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, Time Warner Center for the second consecutive year. We’ve been working hard to solidify our venue, dates, and hotel for Skift Global Forum, which will be held on September 27-28, 2018. We’ll be in the heart of Columbus Circle in New York City for an unbeatable two-day conference.

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech editor [email protected] if you have funding news. The total publicized this week was more than $89 million. Earlier this week we covered how TripActions a business travel startup, closed a $51 million Series B funding round, led by Lightspeed Ventures.

Can an event become too successful? That’s something Germany’s largest exhibition organizer, Deutsche Messe, will put to the test in April when it combines two of its biggest events in Hanover, the Hannover Messe 2018 industrial technology show and the biannual CeMAT logistics and materials handling show. The massive event will use 25 of the 26 halls and occupy around 4.3 million square feet of the world’s biggest exhibition center.

We’ve been keeping you in the loop about our speakers, incredible venues, and all the magic that goes into planning our second Skift Forum Europe. Now it’s time to really show you why youmustbe there to experience everything we have to offer in Berlin. Our world-class attendees come from all corners of theindustry and the world. Last year, we had over 450 attendees from 36 countries join us in London, and 39% were vice presidents and above.

Hundreds of the travel industry’s most-forward-thinking executives will gather for our second annualSkift Forum Europe in Berlin on April 26.In just a few years, Skift's Forums — the largest creative business gatherings in the global travel industry — have become what media, speakers, and attendees have called the “TED Talks of travel.” After last year's European tourism comeback, Skift Forum Europe 2018 will take place at Cafe Moskau in Berlin.