The WTM London Africa Region experiences almost 45,000 on-stand meetings from 4,671 industry professionals interested in the region.

The Africa region at WTM London saw a total of 44,413 on-stand meetings take place, meaning each of the 337 African exhibitors had an average of almost 132 (131.8) on-stand meetings.

Of the 10,500 buyers at WTM London from the WTM Buyers’ Club more than 2,200 (2,221) were looking to purchase African product, including almost 1,500 (1,480) for South Africa, almost 1,000 (967) for Kenya, 631 for Egypt and almost 400 (399) for Tunisia.

The continent received 62 million international arrivals in 2017 – up 5% on 2016, according to the UNWTO.

WTM London 2018 will see the introduction of Regional Inspiration Zones. These Regional Inspiration Zones will be the centre point of the regions and will act as an ideas hotbed for debate, research and analysis of the regions tourism industry. The Regional Hub will host content sessions, networking events, festivals.

Some of the confirmed sessions on the African Regional Inspiration Zones include a dedicated Responsible Tourism water session following concerns water shortages in Cape Town, and research by Euromonitor International on the African market.

In total, WTM London 2017 experienced 935,129 on-stand meetings helping the event generate more than £3.1 billion in industry deals.

WTM London, Senior Director, Simon Press, said: “WTM London is effectively eight shows under one roof. WTM attracts 50,000 delegates from 182 countries and regions generating £3.1 billion in industry deals. The African show at WTM facilitates almost 45,000 meetings with approaching 5,000 delegates interested in African countries.