WTM London and Travel Forward are adding new products to their portfolio, designed to support the flagship three-day events taking place this November at ExCeL London, as the travel industry starts to emerge from the pandemic and prepares to “recover, rebuild and accelerate”.
Early this June, WTM London and event venue partner ExCeL London confirmed that the world’s leading event for the global travel industry will take place this year from 2 – 4 November.
Simon Press, Exhibition Director, WTM London said:
“WTM London will be so important to restarting the global travel and tourism industry, on which the livelihoods of so many people depend.”
Elsewhere, Simon Mills, Executive Director, ExCeL London, explained that the venue will be available and that “halls, meeting rooms, conference space and boulevard are currently being reinstated and will be fully operational and available from the beginning of September.”
Social distancing and other safety measures will be in place, with WTM and ExCeL both committing to following Public Health England directives and government guidelines.
The organisers have also confirmed that Travel Forward, WTM London’s technology-focused sister event, will take place and is co-located at ExCeL London from 2-4 November.
The commitment to hosting WTM London and Travel Forward in the real world reinforces WTM London’s pivotal role in the industry.
Richard Gayle, Event Manager for Travel Forward, said:
“November is a great time for the sector to get back together. We are aware of our responsibility to make sure that we do everything we can to help exhibitors and visitors recover, rebuild and accelerate.”
During the height of the pandemic, the WTM London team launched the WTM Global Hub, a dedicated micro-site aggregating content about the travel industry and the pandemic. The hub, which is still live and is constantly updated, includes webinars, podcasts, videos, news and blogs from key industry figures.
WTM London has also announced plans for a new virtual event scheduled to take place in the second week of November. A similar initiative earlier this year proved a great success and shows how the WTM team is capable of producing complementary, high-quality online events: Arabian Travel Market (Virtual), part of the WTM Portfolio, attracted almost 12,000 digital attendees from 140 countries around the world.
A series of five online mini-conferences, branded Travel Forward Online, have also been added to the line-up of new business-focused events taking place from July-October 2020.
More details around WTM London 2020 will emerge over the coming weeks. An online press conference for media is taking place on 29 July.
Simon Press added:
“Lockdowns and restrictions are being lifted and travel is becoming an option again. We supported the industry during the peak of the pandemic, and we’re determined to carry on with our regular, physical event at ExCeL, supported by a range of new digital products.”