WTM 2015: a look into the future

World Travel Market London 2015 was held at the ExCeL Centre in East London with hundreds of destinations and thousands of press, trade, tourist boards and more. This year, in addition to the stunning destination booths from Africa to Central America, WTM London hosted an area focused on Travel Tech, a series of events on responsible tourism as well as talks on women on travel.

Travel Tech

This year, WTM London hosted an impressive programme of events, dedicated to covering the latest trends and innovations in the travel technology and digital space.  As the need to find smarter and more efficient ways to better service the modern traveller is increasing, so is the demand for constant innovation. The travel tech sessions were all created with this in mind. The designated Travel Tech Theatre gave seminars on blogging, social media, apps and the digital space within travel. Seminar topics included eTourism Dynamics: Smart Tourism; How travel brands can work with Google; Virtual Reality and the Future of Marketing, PR and Sales; and Trends in Customer Communication- how to wow your clients and cut costs.  Senior executives from Google, Facebook and Twitter were on site to speak with brands, destinations and bloggers about the power of the Internet.

WTM Responsible Travel

Wednesday was WTM World Responsible Tourism Day and tackled the issue of climate change and came just weeks before the issue will be discussed by the United Nations to achieve the first legally binding agreement. With eco-tourism and sustainable travel impacting the industry, many destinations are looking for ways to participate in responsible tourism.

According to WTM, more than eight in ten senior industry professionals say the environment is important to their organization. Some global destinations are putting a cap on the number of tourist entering a city. For example, Barcelona is poised to introduce a ban on tourist groups of more than 15 people in the iconic La Boqueria market on La Rambla Boulevard. According to WTM, other destinations such as Canary Islands and Machu Picchu are looking to follow suit. Nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of the industry agreed with the statement “tourism caps are a practical solution to the problems of over-crowding.” When asked whether caps would be a good thing for their city/company/destination, only 36 per cent agreed with 34 per cent disagreeing. Through their Responsible Tourism Day, World Travel Market has established the largest day of responsible tourism action in the world.

Women in Travel

In order to address a lack of women in the travel industry and supporting those already there, WTM Women in Travel offered a one-on-one mentoring program in addition to networking opportunities and the chance to hear words of wisdom from influential women in travel. Beginning with a session called ‘Not for the Faint Hearted: Entrepreneurship, Resilience & The Art of Bouncing Back,’ WTM Women in Travel addressed the concept of resilience and how it is understood in an organizational setting. Through ‘4G Leadership,’ four generations of travel women shared their leadership lessons, highlighting how leadership is both critical yet is one of the least available attributes in today’s business world.

Finally, Adventuress Jacki Hill-Murphy recounted her extensive travels off the beaten path and why her predecessors were women of both great resilience and leadership.

Through their unique and valuable insight, WTM London continued their role as leaders in the travel industry. Highlighting destination branding and new challenges in the changing market, WTM continues to address the big issues within the travel industry. Continuing with exploratory sessions in travel tech, responsible travel and other ground breaking travel trends, WTM London 2016 is the highly anticipated event in the industry’s calendar.