WTM Latin America presents news of the 8th edition of the event

The Tangará Palace was the place chosen to receive the guests of WTM Latin America for a breakfast with many first fruits. The event’s director, Luciane Leite, and the marketing manager of WTM Latin America, Thais Del Ben, pointed out the programs that will be repeated and the news in the 2020 edition.

Among other points, Luciane Leite highlighted the team’s commitment and the good results achieved in the 2019 edition, the continuous benchmark work with the other fairs of the WTM portfolio, the good practices validated with the Advisory Council and the active participation of Latin American organizations with the increase of initiatives, exhibitors and alliances inside and outside the event.

The 1st edition of the Responsible Tourism Award, the only Latin American award, was highlighted during the talk. With approximately 15 projects registered, the recurring theme in the entire WTM global portfolio deserves attention and will be increasingly present at the Latin American event. According to Luciane, responsible tourism must be increasingly valued. “We are working on three supporting pillars: economic, environmental and social. In this sense, we have a series of sustainability actions already confirmed, such as ecological bags, recycled paper catalog, inclusion programs, and alliances with several NGOs, among other initiatives that confirm our commitment to the issue. We know that this is a challenging path and, increasingly, we want to implement concrete actions that make our event more sustainable, ”he explains.

In 2020, the event organization will hire refugee food trucks, encourage the reduction of paper use and seek alternatives so that, at the end of the event, the material used has an environmentally correct and conscious destination.

In the 8th edition, the Travel Forward ‒evento of tourism and hospitality technology event will be held, which will have two days of specific conferences on the sector and a space to work together with start-ups‒, as well as the Women in Travel program that , as in this year’s edition, it will offer mentoring to women who want to undertake tourism.

Luciane made considerations about a very common questioning: the future of fairs. And he affirmed that the fairs are still an important networking tool and that personal relationships, face to face, are still fundamental for the generation of businesses, the proposal of alliances, the alignment of interests and the generation of mutual trust. “I think that, even with the available technologies, the fairs continue at a positive growth rate and proof of this is the interest that people show in visiting the event.

In this sense, the executive reinforced the WTM Live, an initiative that fosters business and experiences beyond the exhibition pavilion. “There are destinations that want to go beyond the stands, they want to offer experience. With WTM Live we create customized opportunities to meet this demand of the exhibitor, ”he says. Costa Rica, Peru and Chile are examples of these actions that, in different ways, bring to the event a stronger and more present Latin America.

Another program that will continue is the Corporate Travel Area, which on the first day of the event will present content focused on travel agents. The second day will be dedicated to meeting planners, with MPI curatorship and specific content for the MICE segment.

The third day of the event will have an unprecedented program for students, in partnership with the Institute of Travel & Tourism (ITT), responsible for the Future You program. This will be the first edition of the program at the Latin American event, which is already consolidated at the London fair. Leading the project is Professor Mariana Aldrigui, a USP tourism researcher and GTTP coordinator (Global Travel and Tourism Partnership) in Brazil.

“It is also our responsibility to prepare the professionals of the future. For this, we will have a program dedicated to their careers, because soon these students will be in the market performing functions that can determine the future of the sector ”, reinforces Thais.

In addition to talking about the fair’s plant, other points were addressed, such as the association with the LGBT camera – which will have special actions within the event – and the result of a survey conducted with travel agents who indicated the Asian continent as the main destination .

“I was in the client role for many years and today I work on the other side. That experience and acute observation adds a lot to the conception of the event. We have a huge concern with the delivery of the event and the satisfaction of our customers, and we work continuously to provide improvements, innovations and meet the demands of the market. And we see this evolution year after year, ”concludes Luciane.