Face-to-Face: Vincent Lhoste
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This week Travel Daily Asia chats with Vincent Lhoste, senior exhibition director of WTM Connect, which recently unveiled plans for two brand new travel trade shows in Southeast Asia and China…
Q) You recently announced plans to launch two WTM Connect events in Asia and China. In terms of format and content, what will these events offer and how will they differ from the standard WTM events in London, Sao Paulo and Cape Town?
WTM Connect Asia and WTM Connect China are brand new exclusive 1-2-1 invitation only pod events, providing attendees with 2.5 days of pure business meetings, education content and networking opportunities.
WTM Connect Asia will take place 18-20 May 2016 in Eastern & Oriental Hotel and Straits Quay Convention Centre in Penang, Malaysia. And WTM Connect China is 23-25 May 2016 in Renaissance Sanya Resort & Spa in Sanya, Hainan Island, China.
The new ‘pod’ format will offer similar elements to the usual WTM exhibition format, connecting buyers and sellers in one place. They provide a high value 1 to 1 ratio with the same number of buyers and suppliers, and a simple and efficient approach where we take care of everything including pre-scheduled meetings and building booths for exhibitors.
Ultimately the main aim of all exhibitions is to bring buyers and sellers together to do business and the WTM Connect events will be no different.
Q) Why did you select Penang and Sanya as the host cities for the first WTM Connect events?
Asia Pacific is now at the forefront of the global leisure travel industry. Southeast Asia’s collective inbound (102m) and outbound (59m) leisure travel markets are growing at +5.9% and +3.8% per annum, from 2014-2018.
China’s outbound leisure travel market is now the largest single travel market (67m) in the world that continues to grow and increase travel expenditure, +16.1% per annum from 2014-2018.
We wanted to offer exhibitors and suppliers beautiful locations which truly represent the local culture, and Sanya and Penang seemed like the perfect options. Plus Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau, Penang Global Tourism and Sanya Tourism Association are all supporting the events.
Q) In future, will events continue to be held in second tier/resort locations, or will you be looking to key gateway cities? And do you have any future locations in mind?
We hope to move both events to different locations each year, offering attendees fresh and exciting places to explore highlighting the diversity of the region and huge potential for business.
Q) Do you have targets for the number of exhibitors/buyers you hope to attract for the 2016 events?
WTM Connect Asia will bring together 120 international exhibitors and 130 Southeast Asian and international hosted buyers. WTM Connect China aims to attract 120 international exhibitors and 120 outbound Chinese hosted buyers.
We hope to confirm a good number of top quality buyers from the world’s leading tour operators such as Cox and Kings, Kuoni Travel, China Ctrip, and China U-Tour to network, negotiate and sign business deals.
Q) And do you expect to roll out more WTM Connect events for other regions/industry sectors in the coming years?
WTM Portfolio’s existing events include WTM London, Arabian Travel Market, WTM Latin America, WTM Africa, WTM Connect Ski, International Golf Travel Market, WTM Connect Asia and WTM Connect China.
We are looking at further business opportunities for the future to continue with our geographical expansion. And the WTM Connect format may be a suitable structure for our developments.
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