World Travel Market 2024

World Travel Market is the biggest event on the calendar in the world of travel. Held at ExCel in London, the event attracts tens of thousands of attendees from around the globe. Over 40,000 travel professionals attend the annual event. Once again, Visit West exhibited on the UKinbound stand, N7-210.

Image: WTM2024 was held in the huge ExCel Exhibtion Centre in London

Destinations, tour operators, DMCs, service providers and more from the UK were in the North Hall along with the rest of Europe and others. The UKinbound stand has a prime position by the N7 entrance door and dominates the UK section. It is clearly one of the most popular and busiest stands in the whole event.

 

Many other destinations were present on the UKinbound stand, including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, North-East England, and Greenwich along with Visit Britain. Visit West (under the Bath & Bristol travel trade brand) were also jointly exhibiting with Cotswolds Plus LVEP.

Image: Kathryn Davis meets with Minister of State for Creative Industries, Arts, and Tourism, Sir Chris Bryant MP at WTM 2024.

89 meetings were pre-arranged with the team across the three days, with many more taking place with people coming to our stand unannounced. Many of our Visit West members also popped by and it was great to see them.

The stand presence was managed by Visit West’s Head of Marketing, Jon Chamberlain, who leads on travel trade engagement for Visit West, but various members of the team were also present at different times to have meetings and answer enquiries. Kathryn Davis (Managing Director) had a busy meetings diary and also met with the new Tourism Minister, Sir Chris Bryant MP. Susie Bowers (PR Manager) and Emma Frayling (PR & Communications Manager) had packed diaries of meetings and conversations with visiting media and influencers on day one.

World Travel Market also attracts a number of ‘fringe’ events before, during and after the event itself. There are also several stages with informative plenary sessions and key note speakers. Kathryn Davis was invited to take part in a discussion around Film Tourism on day one.

Themes throughout the week that came up in conversation were outlook for 2025 and 2026, availability of accommodation, success stories of 2024 and plans for positive engagement and activity ahead. We updated contacts old and new with key themes and events for 2025 as well as new developments for 2026, including new accommodation in the pipeline. There were also a few live enquiries, where our ‘Destination Triage’ service has kicked in and suggestions for businesses to work with, including availability and pricing, are being worked on now. A key theme, repeated from previous years, included the need for DMCs and Tour Operators to be offered guaranteed FIT rates - and how those accommodation businesses who offer them will benefit greatly from bookings in the medium term.

Over the next few days and weeks we will be following up with all those who we met but if you would like to talk to the team in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact us via email.