WTM European Exhibitors Benefit From £494m in Industry Contracts

World Travel Market 2013, the leading global event for the travel industry, will generate a massive £494 million for its European exhibitors, including UK & Ireland, reveals independent research.

World Travel Market 2013, the leading global event for the travel industry, will generate a massive £494 million for its European exhibitors, including UK & Ireland, reveals independent research.

Independent analysis, by Fusion Communications, of the WTM 2013 Europe & Mediterranean and UK & Ireland regions reveals £494m of contracts will be generated, either through deals signed at the event with WTM Buyers’ Club members or from further negotiations which will conclude before WTM 2014.

Examples of business deals conducted by European and UK exhibitors include Encore, which is expecting to seal deals worth £5m due to WTM 2013. And Andalucía, which signed suppliers worth six figures in just one day of WTM.

The £494m business deals figure for WTM exhibitors from the regions covering Europe is a 5% increase on WTM 2012’s £469m figure.

The European region of WTM 2013 had a massive 43 new exhibitors reflecting the improving economic climate across continental Europe. Russian flag carrier Aeroflot was the biggest name back within the WTM fold. VisitBrussels was also new, strengthening the overall presence of Belgium at this year’s WTM. Spain’s state-owned railway Renfe also exhibited.

Furthermore, Flanders started a two year Premier Partnership of the event at WTM 2013, while long-term major exhibitors including the national tourist boards of Spain, Germany and Italy were also present.

The UK & Ireland region had 10 new exhibitors including Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and the London Theatre Group.

The regions were also strongly represented at the WTM Speed Networking events on the Monday and Thursday of WTM 2012. On the Monday exhibitors took advantage of the chance to meet contacts briefly before the event opened and arrange a more detailed discussion later. While on the Thursday exhibitors were able to tie up those last minute deals and meet buyers they hadn’t spoken to over the first three days of WTM.

Overall WTM 2013 will generate £2.2 billion of business for all exhibitors before WTM 2014 opens on Monday 3 November.

World Travel Market, Senior Director, Simon Press said: “The amount of business WTM 2013 conducted for Europe and the UK regions’ exhibitors is phenomenal and a testament to WTM’s role in facilitating business on a truly global scale for its exhibitors.

“2014 will see an increased focus on Europe with it being the 100 anniversary of the Great War, this should see even more deals agreed by European exhibitors at WTM 2014.”

World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.

More than 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.

WTM, now in its 35th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.

WTM 2013 generated more than £2 billion of travel industry contracts, revealed independent research by Fusion Communications.

WTM is owned by the worldʼs leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.

In 2013, RE held more than 500 events in 40 countries bringing together more than six million people from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.

Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry, with a wide-ranging portfolio of 21 international events in 14 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa. Its market-leading, business-to-business events cover all elements of travel and tourism, including leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, events, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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