WTM London Review 2017
® FOREWORD
SIMON PRESS Senior Exhibition Director WTM London
WOW, WHAT AN EVENT! Daily, as the organising team we prepare for WTM London over a year in advance, it is only when we arrive onsite to London ExCel that the face to face event comes alive!
WTM London is the must attend event as the energy and vibrancy of 181 countries and destinations are represented through our exhibitor stands, cultural displays, tastes, smells and language truly refl ecting the wonderful diversity of our travel and tourism industry. Our loyal and engaged exhibitors and visitors are always excited to discover new opportunities, reunite with colleagues and friends from around the globe and deliver those key business contacts. For the fi rst time ever, the number of
pre-qualifi ed buyers in the WTM Buyers’ club who attended the event over the three days stood at 10,726 – up 8% on 2016. This great number of WTM Buyers’ Club and senior executives being invited to WTM London means the event is predicted to facilitate £3billion in industry business deals, beating last year’s record of £2.8billion. The exhibitor driven invitation process is showing benefi ts with the number of senior industry executives invited to do business increasing signifi cantly year-on-year being up 14% to 16,049 which includes an 8% rise on Monday 6 November (invite-only day) to 11,861. Together with our thought-leading content partners, WTM London enjoyed
Welcome
high levels of participation at more than 80 conferences and seminars, sharing the latest trends and business acumen with many travel leaders whilst providing that crucial platform for constructive debate and learning.
I hope you had the chance to attend our impressive session with Alex Cruz, the chief executive of British Airways. And took away tips, to implement in your own businesses, about how ‘Overtourism’- growth is not the enemy, it is how we manage it’ through both the ministerial programme and the responsible tourism programme. I was delighted in the foundation
laid through a new initiative called “the Ministers’ Destination Investment Symposium” whereby we brought together IHIF’s leadership on hospitality investment and WTM London’s expertise of the international travel industry. The session provided an exclusive meeting point for Ministers and investors in travel destination development. On trend to understanding why an authentic sense of place is crucial for a positive food traveler experience, WTM London orchestrated an information- rich, two hour session with industry leaders to air viewpoints and give insight in these areas. This year we also introduced a new session focused on
the destination wedding market to aid travel professionals to get the most out of this lucrative sector. Finally, I thought Guy Verhofstadt,
the Brexit negotiator and former Prime Minister of Belgium gave the WTM Leaders’ Lunch audience ‘food for thought’ with some interesting and controversial ideas around Britain’s exit from the EU which he delivered in a humorous and engaging way. On behalf of the team and myself, I would like to thank you for attending WTM London 2017, and making it one of our most successful shows to date. I look forward to seeing many of you in spring 2018 at our other leading regional events in the WTM portfolio. WTM Latin America in Sao Paulo fi rst, then WTM Africa in Cape Town and Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, before we all return to the global event of WTM London - Monday 5 November to Wednesday 7 November 2018.
SIMON PRESS
LONDON 6–8 November 2017 WTM London Review 2017 06
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137
