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Rugby legend Keith Wood joins WTM’s Sport Tourism Team

Rugby legend Keith Wood joins WTM’s Sport Tourism Team

Following another dramatic summer of sport around the world, World Travel Market 2014 – the leading global event for the travel industry – will be assessing the relationship between sporting events and the travel industry during its Sport Tourism programme.

A number of high-calibre sports tourism professionals will be at WTM to give their views and assessments about the potential for destinations to capitalise on high-profile forthcoming sport events.

The WTM Sport Tourism programme, which is sponsored by Eurosport, kicks off on Tuesday November 4 from 15:45-17:00, with a session called Rugby World Cup 2015 – the Potential for Sport Tourism, which will look at the opportunities available when the Rugby World Cup is held in England next year.

Held over six weeks, the Rugby World Cup is one of the world’s largest sports events and a major catalyst for sport tourism in the host countries.

‘Propping’ up the session will be former British & Irish Lion and captain of Ireland Keith Wood – now a successful strategic planner for the sport and tourism sectors – who will moderate a panel of experts from the world of rugby, sport, global events and host destinations.

After leaving the world of professional rugby playing, Wood founded W2 Consulting, which specialises in project evaluation and strategic planning in the sport and tourism sector.

On Wood’s team for the session will be a number of knowledgeable experts, including Brett Gosper, chief executive officer of the International Rugby Board (IRB) and managing director of Rugby World Cup Limited, who is also a former rugby player and former advertising executive.

The session will look at the success of New Zealand, which launched a wide-scale national sport tourism strategy around its hosting of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, which resulted in significant sport, economic, social and promotional benefits for the host country.

Session two, Future Trends in Sport Tourism as a Destination Development Strategy, will take place on Wednesday November 5, from 10:00-11:00.

The session will be overseen by sport tourism expert Professor Terry Stevens, who will lead a discussion identifying the key trends for the sector and how regions are embracing sport tourism part of their destination development strategy.

He will be joined by a panel of major event organisers, host destinations and sports marketing experts, including;

World Travel Market, Senior Director, Simon Press said: “Sport tourism is acknowledged as the tourism industry’s fastest growing sector and national and regional destinations are recognising the huge potential of hosting sport tourism as a key element of their destination marketing and growth development.

“It’s not just the mega events such as the FIFA World Cup and Rugby World Cup that reap rewards – destinations and regions are also realising locally hosted events have much to offer their tourism prospects.”

Eurosport, Marketing Deputy Director, Vincent David said: “Sport tourism currently accounts for more than 10% of the global travel and tourism industry. Eurosport can therefore help this industry sector grow further by putting a destination on the map and into millions of homes across the world through its unrivalled Pan- European reach and highly engaged global audience. The Eurosport Group works with 60 tourism boards and so WTM is the perfect place for us to meet with existing partners and potential new clients.”

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About World Travel Market

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 world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a other portfolio’s of travel industry events including IBTM Events, the world’s leading showcases for the meetings and events industry and International Luxury Travel Market events.

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 Exhibitions

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.

RTE is part of Reed Exhibitions.

www.reedtravelexhibitions.com

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