WTM Latin America 2017, Braztoa Bring Together the Global Tourism Market

The main Latin American tourism and travel business event, WTM Latin America, is now underway. From the 4th to the 6th of April, the white and blue pavilions of Expo Center Norte, in São Paulo, will receive exhibitors, buyers and visitors for an effective schedule of meetings, business opportunities, qualified networking and high-grade professional information.

WTM Latin America is renewing its partnership with the Braztoa Business Event, strengthening the event’s representativeness, as well as its initiatives which promote intra-regional tourism. Now in its fifth edition, it has consolidated its leadership as the most important B2B event in the region, and as a contributor to the development of tourism.

“We are very proud to have reached the fifth edition of this event”, says Lawrence Reinisch, Director of WTM Latin America. “Drawing on several lessons learned in the previous editions, and on market recognition, we are enthusiastic about this great business and networking gathering, which brings the world to Latin America and promotes Latin America to the world.”

"Latin America is a market with great opportunity. It is important, for us, to understand the players and to exceed their expectations with an event that provides the best environment for relationship-building and business”, says Charlie Cracknell, Senior Events Director at Reed Exhibitions.

According to Lawrence, the 2017 edition is a milestone, and proof of that is that WTM Latin America is hosting the first Ministerial Round-table on Tourism as an Instrument for Development, organized by the Brazilian Tourism Ministry, in partnership with the World Tourism Organization (WTO).

The meeting, which will occur on the 5th of April in the morning, will include Tourism Ministers from South and Central America, in addition to authorities from other relevant bodies, to debate, among other topics, intra-regional cooperation to promote market development and to promote destinations on integrated routes.

WTM Latin America’s leadership is further demonstrated by renewed investment from traditional exhibitors, as well as the arrival of new exhibitors, who diversify and increase the offering of products and services to buyers, while also demonstrating the strength of the market and the importance of Latin America as a region.

Visitors can discover the attractions of destinations such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, Italy, Greece and Palestine, do business with companies such as PKFARE, Carrusel Travel New, Siteminder and Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts, and learn about the new offerings of airlines such as Airfrance, KLM, Gol, Delta Airlines and Turkish Airlines.

To drive business opportunities for exhibitors and visitors, the 2017 edition of the event will include the traditional Hosted Buyers and WTM Buyers’ Club programs, groups that bring together a selection of the most sought-after buyers in the world.

Both programmes are dedicated to selecting highly relevant travel industry buyers who are interested in Latin America’s tourism potential. Buyer review is sophisticated and rigorous, whether to take part in the WTM Buyers’ Club, to which industry professionals apply yearly, or to be in the Hosted Buyers group, which is invited by WTM Latin America to participate.

According to Luciane Leite, the Manager of WTM Latin America, one of the event’s highlights is the presence of qualified buyers. She points out that, in this edition, the team made an especially great effort to leverage market intelligence and research to attract the representatives from around the world who are most qualified and sought after by exhibitors for doing business.

In line with its objective of promoting networking and business, the leading global travel industry event in Latin America will organize a special gathering on the 5th and 6th of April, from 10:30 to 12:00, in the Networking Area: WTM Speed Networking. This year, approximately 200 buyers and 800 exhibitors are expected to join the sessions.

The initiative came about so that buyers could have the opportunity to connect with the greatest possible number of exhibitors in a short period of time. The meetings, which are exclusively for WTM Buyers’ Club members, who must always apply for review, contribute to the diversity of contacts and openness among investors, making the relationship-building among them more dynamic.

Since they were launched, at WTM London 2010, the meetings have proved to be a success, with participants averaging ten meetings in less than 25 minutes. Reinisch highlights that these aren’t conventional meetings, but door-opening opportunities that lead to deals that will be closed afterwards.

A big innovation, for all audiences who will be at this edition, is the ‘My Event’ online platform, which supports each visitor’s planning and schedule organization during the days of the event. It allows participants to create an individual professional profile, request meetings and select favorite exhibitors and presentations. The tool will contribute to time-management and boosts opportunities to connect and do business.

Another innovation in the 2017 edition are partnerships with two global tourism leaders: HotelMap, the largest global platform for hotel reservations; and oneworld, an alliance of 15 of the most important airlines in the world, covering over 1,000 destinations. These agreements provide discounts on flights and stays for all event participants.

The UN (United Nations) declared 2017 to be the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, so the spotlight is going to be on the contribution of the industry to the sustainable development of destinations. Sector companies, in both source markets and destinations, frequently mention the industry’s contribution to the development of countries.

As a result for this UN initiative, responsible tourism is being increasingly discussed on the tourism and travel industry’s agenda, as it debates the central role of the local community and its right to be a major player in the development of sustainable and socially responsible tourism.

This important subject is high on the agenda of the fifth edition of WTM Latin America. The event is promoting a series of conferences in the Conference Theatre, with the participation of important professionals from the area who are going to consider tourism and the sustainable development goals; take examples from South America with its three World Responsible Tourism Award winners; and discuss the continent’s wildlife and biodiversity and animal welfare “Reed Travel Exhibitions and WTM, as brands and as event promoters, are committed to supporting responsible and sustainable tourism. By way of our events, we work globally with the top experts in this segment,” says Charlie Cracknell.