It’s back! Yes the world famous World Travel Market otherwise known as the WTM is back in its 33rd year!
Many of us Caribbean nationals particularly those of us in business or more particularly tourism / travel related business, make the trek down to the Excel Centre in London to flog our wares, network and discover new products.
For those of us with the wherewithal to secure booths and kit them out with advertising paraphernalia and so on understand full well the degree of investment this represents and the need to justify the expenditure.
Now with the world economy teetering on the brink of the abyss and Caribbean governments fighting battles on all fronts; climate change, EPA reduced funding threats, rum production threats, Air Passenger Duty and so on, the need to justify making representation at the prestigous World Travel Market is imperative.
The questions many ask are ‘How do governments measure success at these trade shows…What represents a decent ROI or return on investment?’ With austerity everywhere aren’t Caribbean citizens within their right to ask what the benefits of journeying 4000 miles and staying in fancy hotels at tax payer’s expense are?
Guyana Booth. Photo courtesy english.sina.com
It is no secret that due to the global economic downturn tourist travel to the Caribbean has dipped significantly. The Caribbean is fast losing its appeal as the holiday destination of choice in favour of local or more accessible destinations.
With this in mind one would think that those Caribbean destinations who have committed to sending tourism agents to this year’s WTM have briefed their officers clearly and stressed the need to close large deals with travel agents, tour operators, airlines, travel writers and so on to show either fresh or renewed interest in the Caribbean as an idealic tourist destination.
Accountability should be our watchword now and our representatives should demonstrate high levels of responsibilty when serving in these priviledged positions. They must adopt the mindset of sales entrapreneurs who have vested interest in the success of their country’s tourism industry and lose the civil servant, don’t give a damn, I’ll get paid anyway attitude. We depend on you to do a good job and save our beautiful Caribbean!
About World Travel Market
Trinidad and Tobago High Commissioner flanked by celebrities.
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.
Almost 48,000 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 33rd year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.
WTM 2011 will generate £1,653 million 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 portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.
In 2010, RE held more than 460 events in 36 countries bringing together more than seven million people from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.
