International Conference Series on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport
International Conference Series on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport
Friday 3 September – Tuesday 7 September 2028
The 20th conference of the International Conference Series on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport (The Thredbo Series) will be held in Kobe, Japan in early September 2028.
The conference will be held at the Kobe International Conference Centre. Kobe is an old port city located on the main island of Japan in the Kansai region, the cultural heart of Japan, known for its rich history, culture, and outgoing locals with big personalities. With a population of roughly 1.5 million, Kobe is the 7thlargest city in Japan. Through its port, which was the first to open in Japan, Kobe has developed its own unique cultural identity by taking on various influences from abroad which to this day give the city a distinct international flavour. This uniqueness is best represented in the city’s multicultural population, and its architecture and cuisine, which is a unique blend of European and traditional and modern Japanese elements. However, what makes Kobe truly unique in Japan is the proximity between nature and the city. With the Rokko Mountain range one side and the Seto Inland Sea on the other, nature surrounds Kobe on all sides, providing spectacular views and perhaps more importantly, incredible cuisine made with fresh local ingredients including the world-famous Kobe Beef and Sake from the Nada Gogo brewing district. With the comforts and entertainment of the city on your doorstep and nature at your fingertips, Kobe is the ideal place to experience the sensation overload that modern Japanese cities are famous for, but also in Kobe you can experience a more traditional side of Japan.
The conference will be hosted by the Graduate School of Business Administration at Kobe University in conjunction with the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney Business School.
The Thredbo conference series has garnered a formidable reputation for being the premier international forum dedicated to the analysis and debate of competition and ownership issues in land passenger transport. This influential forum attracts high quality participation and delivers a large portfolio of impressive material synthesising developments not only from developed economies but increasingly from developing economies.
The conference series is directed towards a broad audience of industry players (government and public transport operators), policy makers, planners, decision makers on infrastructure and service operators, consultants, researchers, academics and students. The mix at Thredbo 18 was: Industry/consultants (20%), government (20%), and academics (60%).
As with past conferences, Thredbo 20 will feature plenary sessions and a series of intensive workshops based around keynote papers and a series of resource papers providing a range of international perspectives on each issue. Please refer to the program.
