World Travel Market 2010, the premier global event for the travel industry, experienced an impressive 10% increase in visitors.
Almost 27,000 (26,908) visitors attended WTM 2010 over the four days (Monday November 8 – Thursday November 11) compared to 24,402 visitors who attended WTM 2009, reveals unaudited figures of the event.
The 10% increased was fuelled by a record number of visitors attending the event under the My Invitations system on the first day of WTM 2010 (Monday 8 November).
The first day at World Travel Market is invite-only, allowing exhibitors to invite the key contacts they want to conduct business with over the four days of the event. Unaudited figures show a 22% increases in visitors with 6,700 senior industry buyers attending WTM 2010 on the first day.
This increase in My Invitations visitors led to an amazing participation in the expanded Meet The Meridian Club Buyers (Speed Networking) session. Almost 250 senior industry buyers took part in the five sessions compared to around 87 when the programme was launched in 2009.
The Impressive visitor figures continued on Tuesday with a 41% increase in ministers and aides attending the fourth UNWTO Ministers’ Summit at WTM, making it a record attendance for the event.
Overall, unaudited visitor figures for Tuesday 9 November were up 18% on the equivalent day in 2009 with almost 17,000 visitors attending WTM 2010 to meet and negotiate contracts with exhibitors.
Unaudited figures for Wednesday 10 November showed a 16% increase in visitors with almost 13,000 travel industry delegates attending.
The revamped final day of WTM 2010 (Thursday 11 November) – including the Talk Business with Lord Digby Jones session – saw unaudited visitor numbers increase by an impressive 34%.
Furthermore, overall participant figures increased by almost 5% (4.7%) compared to WTM 2009. WTM 2010 saw 47,719 travel industry professionals take part compared to 45,571 at WTM 2009.
There were more than 5,000 exhibitors including 628 Main Stand Holders, compared to 607 in 2009.
World Travel Market Exhibition Director Simon Press said: “I am delighted with the attendance figures for WTM 2010. The impressive increase in My Invitations visitors participants in the Meet The Meridian Club Buyer (Speed Networking) session on the first day supports the conversations I had with exhibitors and buyers that a high amount of business was conducted at WTM 2010
“The fact the number of year on year visitors increased every day of WTM – including the 34% increase in visitors on the final day – is particularly impressive and is great news for exhibitors, allowing them to conduct even more business across all four days of the event.”
