This year (2016) WTM, the Word Travel Market, has been reduced from a 4-day event to a 3-day event for the first time in its 30+ year history.
Now to me this begs the question. “Are the days of the large travel trade show numbered?”
In my experience of travel shows, WTM is certainly one of the largest (perhaps only dwarfed by ITB in Berlin) with exhibitors attending from around the globe and trade visitors thronging the halls on most days. For anyone unfamiliar with WTM, in recent years the format has been broadly: Monday is reserved for invited trade buyers, and Tuesday to Thursday have been open to any member of the travel and tourism industry.
There is always plenty going on with cultural performances by tourist offices and seminars on a whole variety of subjects from sustainable tourism to the latest advances in travel technology. In fact, as you wander around the halls lined with tourist, boards, hotels groups, car hire companies and many others, whether you want to know more about the Turks & Caicos Islands or the latest trends in social media almost certainly you will find someone only too happy to share information.
According to the WTM London website this year’s show has been “revamped as a three day event, following vital exhibitor and visitor feedback.” This means that as usual Monday is reserved for invited trade buyers, with Tuesday and Wednesday open to any member of the travel and tourism industry.
While I am not privy to the feedback, in my opinion the show needed to be shorter because, for whatever reason, many exhibitors could not stay for the full 4 days. Given that the majority have travelled from the four corners of the globe, I can understand that. Unfortunately though this meant that anyone visiting on a Thursday had less chance to meet with suppliers.
In this virtual world where all the information we need is available online (including of course here at the Travel Uni!) do the exhibitors need to be there at all and is the answer to the question raised in the blog title, ‘not a lot’?
Given that I am writing for the Travel Uni blog you might predict that that would be my answer but in fact I believe that travel trade events like WTM do in fact still have a big part to play in our industry. Yes you can certainly learn a lot from an elearning course and there ‘always available’ nature has immense value for people who cannot attend the large trade events perhaps because of time or travel constraints; but the information gleaned and business opportunities discussed at an event like WTM, perhaps over a coffee, are in my opinion priceless.
I believe it was the right decision to reduce WTM to 3 days but I for one would not want to see such travel trade events disappear completely.
What do you think? Do events like WTM still have value for you?
