The WTM London Middle East Region experiences more than 75,000 on-stand meetings from more than 6,700 industry professionals interested in the region.

The Middle East region at WTM London saw a total of 75,326 on-stand meetings take place, meaning each of the 309 exhibitors had an average of 243 on-stand meetings.

Of the 10,500 buyers at WTM London from the WTM Buyers’ Club more than 2,800 (2,803) attended to conduct business with Middle Eastern exhibitors. The United Arab Emirates was the most popular destination with 2,159 buyers looking to buy product from the country, 1,369 buyers were interested in purchasing product from Iran, with 610 interested in Bahrain and 540 looking at Iraq.

The Middle East received 58 million tourist in 2017, according to the UNWT0, a 5% increase on the previous 12 months.

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 Inspiration Zones will host content sessions, networking events, festivals. Some of the confirmed sessions on the Middle East Inspiration Zones include a dedicated session around Halal tourism and food tourism.

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 Middle East region at WTM facilitates more than 75,000 meetings with more than 6,000 delegates interested in Middle East countries.”