EUROPE - Reed Exhibitions is expecting to deliver a boost to the London economy amounting to £160m during its 34th World Travel Market (WTM).
The global event for the travel industry opened its doors to the trade on 4 November at Excel London, and will run until 7 November, with an expected 50,000 visitors attending.
Business deals worth more than £2bn are expected to be triggered by World Travel Market, while visitors will pump £160m into the capital’s economy through money spent on hotels, restaurants, flights and other discretionary spend. The figure tops the estimated £100m in value generated for London by The British Fashion Council’s London Fashion Week in September.
WTM 2013 hosted its first A Taste of International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) at WTM on 4-5 November, and saw up to 60 UK buyers, who invest in global luxury products, hold a minimum of 30 pre-scheduled business meetings with luxury exhibitors.
Meanwhile, Reed Exhibitions confirmed it was not running its Business Travel Knowledge Forum alongside WTM 2013.
Reed took the decision in July to cancel its 2013 Business Travel Market (BTM), despite up to a quarter of visitors to WTM coming from the business travel sector. The organiser issued a statement in July: “Due to tough economic conditions putting pressure on customers’ spend and time, we felt it was not possible to deliver an event that would do justice to both the industry and our customers.”
Conference News, sister publication of Exhibition News, provided one of three judges for the annual WTM stand awards on 4 November.
Catalonia won the award for Best Stand Design, due to its eco-friendly, carbon-neutral approach, and the way its green message reflected the region and its ambitions. Judges said it was innovative and offered good spaces for business, as well as being cosy and practical.
Last year’s WTM had a total unique attendance of 47,776 including 32,096 visitors (ABC-audited), and covered just over 42,000sqm. It generated £1.86bn of travel industry contracts, according to independent research by Fusion Communications.
Earlier this year, Reed Exhibitions announced the launch of Africa Travel Week at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). Three shows will co-locate during the week event from 28 April to 3 May 2014, including WTM Africa, IBTM Africa and ILTM Africa.
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