World Travel Market 2013’s Conference and Event programme experienced a 9.5% increase smashing through the 16,000 barrier for the first time.
WTM 2013 hosted more than 100 conferences and events with a total attendance of 16,290.
Furthermore, the number of unique delegates attending the sessions increased by an impressive 13% to 8,482, compared to WTM 2012’s 7,494.
The conference and events programme – which included sessions on aviation, cruise, hotels, sports tourism and responsible tourism – experienced impressive double-digit year-on-year increases across all of the first three days of WTM.
The inaugural The Travel Technology Show at WTM made up around half of the total sessions in seminar programme, covering social media, mobile, blogging and technology, accounted for 8,101 attendees – a massive 88% increase on WTM 2012.
Headline speakers across the programme included former M&S CEO and Chairman Sir Stuart Rose, No-frills airline pioneer Barbara Cassani, Deputy London Mayor Kit Matlhouse, Google Head of Travel Sarah McDonald, Facebook Head of Travel Lee McCabe, TUI Travel Deputy CEO Johan Lundgren, TripAdvisor Head of Responsible Tourism Jenny Rushmore, Jumeriah Group President and Group CEO Gerald Lawless, South African Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk and World Cup winning former Brazilian footballer Ronaldo.
The increase in attendance at the WTM Conference and Seminar programme is part of the wider success story of WTM 2013, which saw more than 50,000 delegates attend over the four days (Monday 4 – Thursday 7 November) – a 5% increase on WTM 2012. The event is predicted to facilitate more than £2 billion in industry deals, which would be a record for WTM.
World Travel Market, Head of Marketing and Communications, Micaela Juarez said: “World Travel Market 2013 was a great success, not only did more than 50,000 delegates attend but we had a record number of attendees at the Conference and Events sessions.
“I am particularly pleased with the massive increase in participation in the session for the Travel Technology Show at WTM. It proves the success of the launch of a dedicated ‘show within a show’ concept we created by launching the event.”
Many of the sessions can be viewed on WTM TV at http://www.wtmlondon.com/Content/WTM-TV
