World Travel Market Latin America, which took place last month between April 22 to 24, welcomed many first-time Brazilian exhibitors including tour operators, hotels and resorts and car-hire companies as well as many well-known returning participants.
Recognised Brazilian exhibitors that returned for 2015 include the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism, which represents many regions, the state of São Paulo, Resorts Brasil, which is the association of Brazilian Resorts and Rio de Janeiro organised by the Convention & Visitors Bureau.The event, which took place simultaneously with Braztoa Business Meeting, relocated to Expo Centre Norte, a more central address in São Paulo this year. The event this year has also been the biggest and best yet, with more visitors and buyers registered and more exhibitors than ever before.New exhibitorsCVC Brasil Operadora e Agência de Viagens SA, one of the most important operators in Brazil with 42 years of experience behind them, exhibited for the first time transporting more than 20 million passengers on national and international trips. The Brazilian Association of Hotels and Resorts and Sol Network Express Hotels & Resorts were also new to WTM Latin America. Last year, WTM Latin America generated $341 million of business deals.Popular car rental services Movida and Hertz, along with the Campinas City Hall, representing the popular region of Sao Paulo, also exhibited for the first time in the Brazil section of the event.
ProgrammeThe event opened with an official welcome from Craig Moyes, WTM portfolio director and Lawrence Reinisch, exhibition director, Reed Travel Exhibitions and Henrique Alves, the new minister of tourism, Brazil along with representatives from Braztoa and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).Other highlights included a session presented by Phocuswright, the global travel market research company, presenting trends in the Latin America travel markets and the impact of digital travel, focusing on sector trends within six Latin American markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.This was followed by a dedicated conference for media in the press centre, which revealed the WTM Latin America Trends Report in association with Euromonitor International.
Responsible tourismFollowing on from the huge success of the WTM Responsible Tourism Programme, which has been a prominent part of WTM in London for the last nine years, delegates at Latin America can expect to see a number of sessions with expert speakers that will discuss key issues that have arisen over recent years.The very popular WTM Latin America Speed Networking session saw more than 100 buyers and 600 exhibitors take part in the one and half hour long session to negotiate business deals.Travel Technology content was stronger this year, with a dedicated session for travel bloggers, with Association on Brazilian Travel Bloggers chairing a session on how destinations can be presented in the form of blog posts, PDF Guides, sponsored posts and videos. Google presented a session around marketing, followed by a session in the tech theatre from Trip Advisor. The WTM Latin America event programme also included lectures on adventure tourism growth, a new sector for 2015 and the Braztoa Leisure Forum.