WTM Latin America to Come on Fully Virtual in August 2021

Caribbean News…
12 May 2021 12:17am
laptop and smartphone, WTM LatAm logo

Caribbean News Digital Newsroom

WTM Latin America has decided to push back its face-to-face meetings to 2022, and this year will hold a virtual edition on August 10, 11 and 12, 2021.

The date change, motivated by the pandemic situation in Brazil and the world, aims to promote a qualified delivery of business connections. This delivery is aligned with the expectations and needs of exhibitors and visitors.

Drawing on all the experience of other virtual events held last year by Reed Exhibitions, WTM Latin America Virtual brings to this edition functionalities and tools focused on business generation and sharing among exhibitors, travel agents, buyers and visitors.

WTM Latin America Marketing Manager, Thaís Del Ben, highlights the lessons learned last year.

"As a company with global reach, Reed Exhibitions allowed us to build solutions that result in relationship building and lead generation," she says.

The platform will allow for the scheduling of virtual meetings based on profiles of interest that each participant will complete at the time of registration. Each meeting will last 30 minutes and will have capacity for six participants per room.

To support those interested in successful participation, WTM Latin America Virtual will launch, over the coming months, an educational series with step-by-step tips on how to get accredited to participate in the virtual event and how to get the most out of the platform. The content will be available in three languages: English, Portuguese and Spanish.

In addition, the event will feature qualified lectures that encourage discussion and industry development. They will focus on the most relevant topics for tourism, considering the challenges of this new scenario in WTM Latin America projects, such as: Post-COVID Trends, Women in Tourism, Responsible Tourism and Technology. Access to the content will be free of charge.

"We are preparing an event that has the necessary tools to do business, reconnect and network. Our focus is on promoting meetings, optimizing opportunities and consolidating negotiations. We learned a lot from the WTM portfolio and took into account the feedback from visitors and exhibitors at the other events to make the Latin America edition the best possible. The public will undoubtedly have both a good experience and a good return on investment," explains Simon Mayle, director of WTM Latin America.

Good Examples and Prospects

In 2020, Arabian Travel Market (ATM) and WTM London -which are part of the WTM portfolio- were completely virtual events.

ATM attracted nearly 12,000 travel professionals to its platform and was attended by 140 countries. The event facilitated 11,301 pre-scheduled appointments, which received 4 or 5 star ratings from 92% of participants. The webinars had more than 24,000 views during the three-day event.

Virtual WTM -the name given to WTM London's virtual event- resulted in almost 20,000 meetings and achieved a 4.5-star rating.

The 60 virtual conferences had more than 26,000 views and during the 6 Speed Networking sessions dedicated to buyers, almost 800 meetings were held.

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