The third World Travel Market (WTM) Latin America, taking place in São Paulo later this month, will reveal the emerging travel trends in the Latin American market.
The event has teamed up with leading research provider Euromonitor International to compile the WTM Latin America Trends Report, following in the footsteps of the WTM Global Trends Report, which is presented annually at WTM in London.
WTM Latin America is held in conjunction with the 43rd Braztoa Business meeting from April 22 to 24 at the Expo Center Norte.
The report will reveal the trends and offer insight into to the size and shape of travel and tourism in the region and identify pressing industry issues, emerging brands, destinations and demographics, growth categories and consumer trends.
WTM Latin America is part of Reed Travel Exhibition’s WTM Portfolio of events, which also includes World Travel Market, Arabian Travel Market and World Travel Market Africa.
Lawrence Reinisch, exhibition director, WTM Latin America, said: “The event offers unrivalled business opportunities for exhibitors, making it the preferred place for the travel and tourism industry to conduct its business deals with the Latin American market.”
WTM Latin America 2015 will be the biggest and best event so far, with an increased floor space in an improved location to bring the world to Latin America and Latin America to the world, he said.
The event last year drew more than 15,000 senior executives and $341 million of new business was conducted between 1,300 exhibitors and almost 900 buyers, thanks in part to almost 3,000 pre-scheduled business appointments.
“With the new and improved initiatives in place for 2015, we are likely to exceed the $341 million business figure for this year,” said Reinisch.
The Hosted Buyer Programme returns to the event with up to 100 senior level travel industry buyers attending the show. They include Emirates, Thomas Cook and JAC Travel.
Braztoa will host 900 Brazilian travel agents, while the tour operator association will also host 70 product managers at the event.
The event also will have the hugely popular Speed Networking session acting as a catalyst for an array of big deals. More than 100 buyers and 600 exhibitors will take part in the session to negotiate and agree a number of business deals to grow both the Latin American region and the global tourism industry.
The event will also have a dedicated Business Travel Area added to the exhibition floor to host global travel management companies (TMCs), airlines, hotels and technology suppliers.
The event will premiere a programme focused on the responsible tourism sector. A number of seminars will be held where expert speakers will discuss key issues that have arisen over recent years.
Panellists for the session “Why Responsible Tourism Makes Commercial Sense” will include two international responsible tourism award winners who will talk about the economic, social and environmental issues of responsible tourism.
The session “Resource Efficiency: Good for the Environment and the Bottom Line” will see panellists share their experience of reducing the carbon and water intensity of their businesses and also on the financial and environmental benefits of doing so.
The session entitled “Tourism and Social Responsibility” will cover topics such as Favela tourism, child protection, and the sensitivities of tourists visiting indigenous tribes.
Chairing all of the sessions will be Harold Goodwin, WTM Portfolio Responsible Tourism advisor and professor of Responsible Tourism Management at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK.
By Sree Bhat