World Travel Market London 2013 – The best edition
10 Nov, 2013
Read in English below / Leia em Português aqui
By Josie Cruz
The World Travel Market is the leading business-to-business event dedicated to the Travel and Tourism industry. Each year in November, senior professionals, government ministers, academics and traders from all over the world meet at ExCel – London to network, negotiate and gather information about the latest industry trends. According to Simon Press, senior director of RTD, this year’s edition is regarded as the most successful of all: “World Travel Market 2013 will facilitate more than £2 billion in industry deals and is poised to the best-ever attended.”
The four days event has different schedules for different interests. WTM Responsible Tourism, for example, is an event within an event. In association with UNWTO (World Tourism Organisation) it promotes one of the most comprehensive agendas about responsible tourism in the entire industry.
Due to this extreme importance, this year it gained more visibility having one extra day at the programme. The three main topics of discussion were climate change – (carbon pollution), water scarcity and child protection, this last being a rather new issue brought forward into the agenda. TUI Nederland was the winner of the World Responsible Tourism Awards 2013 tackling on that issue. It underlined the huge problem of child’s sex exploitation in Brazil, creating awareness for the upcoming international sports events that will take place there in near future.
by Raphaela Guimarães
Brazil, by the way, was at the spotlight at WTM London 2013. With presences of footballer Ronaldo and the World Cup mascot ‘Fuleco’, the main concept of EMBRATUR’s Brazil stand was to promote the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2014. It counted with presentations of a Capoeira group and a Brazilian singer, besides offering to the stand visitors free ‘caipirinhas’ and traditional Brazilian dishes. (Keep an eye on this section to learn more about EMBRATUR’s plans about the future of tourism in Brazil).
WTM London 2013 definitely brought some innovations such as incorporating The Travel Tech Show to it. It is now the biggest travel technology event in the UK. Also, the WTM Speed Networking area that enabled buyers and exhibitors to meet up and discuss business in a more dynamic way, maximizing the chances of new partnerships, and the WTM Advices Clinics, which offered one-to-one advices of well-known professionals from all different sectors of the industry.
WTM has reached Latin America already. Next year the second edition will take place in Sao Paulo from 23 -25th April 2014, whilst in London the dates of next year’s edition will be 03 to 07th November 2014.
