VisitBritain held its third annual Youth Tourism Conference on 16 March in central London.

This year’s panel of tourist industry experts – MTV’s Youth Trends Expert Andrew Davidson, the Independent’s travel editor Simon Caulder and Family Kids and Youth MD Barbie Clarke – discussed how to attract the next generation of British travellers.

Davidson said that young people are now focused on making the right choices to achieve future career and lifestyle success and are not necessarily concerned about being considered ‘cool’.

Clarke also suggested that understanding current trends in youth culture, such as an interest in fair trade, cynicism over corporate organisations and increased digital communication usage, is key to the leisure industry’s future success in targeting the youth demographic. Details: www.visitbritain.com