The WTM London Asia Region plays host to more than 185,000 on-stand meetings from 7,799 industry professionals interested in the region.
The Asia region at WTM London 2017 saw a total of 185,748 on-stand meetings take place, meaning each of the 778 Asian exhibitors had an average of almost 239 (238.8) on-stand meetings.
Of the 10,500 buyers from the WTM Buyers’ Club, 3,347 were at WTM London 2017 to purchase Asian product. Thailand was the most popular destination with 1,864 buyers looking to purchase product from the country, closely followed by China with 1,618 buyers, then India (1,529), Singapore (1,475) and Japan (1,455).
The Asia region at WTM grew massively in 2017 with more stands across the board, from mature markets in Japan, Korea and Australia to emerging destinations such as Kyrgyzstan, Taiwan, Mongolia and Vietnam. Furthermore, the Japan National Tourism Organisation expanded its WTM London exhibition stand space by more than a third for 2017, to ramp up marketing activity ahead of international sporting tournaments including the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Asia saw a record 324 million tourists in 2017, a 6% increase on the previous year, according to UNWTO figures.
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 each region’s tourism industry.
The Regional Inspirational Zones will host content sessions, networking events and festivals. Some of the confirmed sessions on the Asia Inspiration Zones include a dedicated Responsible Tourism session around China, and research by ForwardKeys on the Asia market.
In total, WTM London 2017 hosted 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 Asia region of WTM London is growing phenomenally, as the region attracts more and more visitors.”