For four days London hosted the world-famous international travel exhibition the “World Travel Market” (WTM). WTM can be compared with such great and world-renowned tourism events, as the Chinese CITM, the ITB in Germany and the JATA World Travel Fair in Japan.
In 2011, the exhibition was organised by nearly 5,000 representatives from 197 countries and regions. Early indications suggest that the event was attended by more than 25,000 people, all of whom have an interest in the tourism industry.
Tourism professionals value the WTM as a unique international business platform to establish business contacts, make deals, learn about the latest industry events and to generate new areas for business development.
The World Tourism Organisation held the key note speech which was dedicated to the development of the tourism industry in the face of uncertainty, in particular, the events in Japan, the complication of the political situation in the Middle East and the economic crisis were discussed.
This year, the Russian Federation with the support of the Federal Tourism Agency (Rosturizm) represented numerous regions of the country such as Volgograd, Irkutsk, Kostroma, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Rostov, Sverdlovsk Region, Krasnodar, the Altai and Perm region, and the Sakha Republic as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is also important to acknowledge the contributions made by major Russian tour operators, enterprises, transport companies, museums and other hospitality companies all of which gladly introduced the visitors and partners to a range of their tourism products and services.
The Russian delegation was led by the Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism, Alexander Radkov.
The next WTM will be held in London, in the ExCeL Exhibition Centre from 5th – 8th November 2012.