World Travel Market London 2015’s Conference and Event programme experienced a 6.2% increase smashing through the 18,000 barrier for the first time.
WTM London 2015 hosted more than 100 conferences and events with a total attendance of 18,097.
Furthermore, the number of unique delegates attending the sessions increased by 2.2% to 9,027 compared to WTM London 2014’s 8,829. In 2013, the number of unique delegates attending the sessions was 8,482 and in 2012 it stood at 7,494.
The conference and events programme – which included sessions on aviation, cruise, hotels, sports tourism, technology, wellness and responsible tourism – experienced massive visitor growth on two of the four days of WTM London 2015
Monday 2 November saw a 14% increase in attendance to 2,781 compared to the previous year. The first day of WTM London 2015 included the prestigious WTM Leaders’ Lunch event, which saw former Manchester United CEO David Gill address more than 200 of travel’s senior leaders. The WTM Buyers’ Speed Networking also saw around 1,000 exhibitors and buyers discuss business deals before the exhibition floor opened.
Tuesday 3 November saw almost 600 people attend the WTM & UNWTO Ministers’ Summit on Destination Branding.
Wednesday 4 November experienced a 25% increase in delegates to 6,298, fuelled in part by the hugely popular WTM World Responsible Tourism Day. The Spafinder Wellness Travel Awards also took place.
Thursday 6 November WTM London hosted a large Travel Tech Show at WTM programme and the largest WTM Bloggers’ Speed Networking event with 100 bloggers talking to exhibitors for 90 minutes.
The Travel Tech Show at WTM Event programme – which includes technology, social media, blogging and mobile – had a total attendance of 8,168 a 10.5% increase on 2014’s attendance.
Headline speakers across the programme included former Manchester United CEO David Gill, Facebook Head of Travel Lee McCabe, Malaysian Airlines CEO Christophe Mueller, TUI Purchasing Director Garry Wilson, Boeing UK & Ireland Strategy Director Richard Mills and leading climate change expert Kevin Anderson.
The increase in attendance at the WTM London Conference and Seminar programme is part of the wider success story of WTM London 2015, which saw almost 50,000 delegates attend over the four days. The event is predicted to facilitate more than £2.5 billion in industry deals, which would be a record for all the previous 36 World Travel Markets.
WTM London, Conference and Seminar Manager, Charlotte Sutton said: “The WTM London Conference and Seminar programme was a great success with a record number of unique and overall attendees listening and learning from high profile speakers from both inside and outside the travel and tourism industry.”
WTM London, Senior Director, Simon Press, said: “World Travel Market 2015 was a great success, with almost 50,000 delegates in attendance and a record number of attendees at the Conference and Events sessions, breaking through the 18,000 barrier for the first time.”
Many of the sessions can be viewed on WTM TV at http://www.wtmlondon.com/Content/WTM-TV
Pictures from the four days can be seen here http://wtm.mediafiler.net/wtm/start/index
-ends-
About World Travel Market London
WTM London, 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.
Almost 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 London is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals. WTM London will generate around £2.5 billion of travel industry contracts.
WTM London is part of Reed Travel Exhibition’s World Travel Market events, which also includes Arabian Travel Market, World Travel Market Latin America and World Travel Market Africa. www.wtmworld.com
Reed Travel Exhibitions
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry. Its wide-ranging portfolio of events around the globe covers leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.
RTE, which organises more than 22 events around the world, includes three divisions; World Travel Market, IBTM Events and International Luxury Travel Market.
RTE is a business unit of Reed Exhibitions.
About Reed Exhibitions
Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organiser, with over 500 events in 43 countries. In 2014 Reed brought together over seven million event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organised by 41 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 43 industry sectors with trade and consumer events. It is part of the RELX Group plc, a world-leading provider of information solutions for professional customers across industries.