The World Travel Market 2008
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/11/2008 (6484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Each year at about this time, some 70,000 travel folks from around the world descend on London for the industry’s primary trade show. Exhibitors range from the huge presence of the Spanish and Italian tourist boards and their industry representatives, to the considerably smaller delegations from Uzbekistan and even Palestine.
I have visited every year since 1980, and love the show; it is bigger, of course, but the simple rush of finding new products and meeting old colleagues never diminishes.
This year, I am particularly interested in increasing our contacts in and traffic to Central Asia and The Caucuses. It is a difficult region, principally because of the almost continuous bad news generated in the mass media, but it is an area of almost limitless interest; cultures that stretch back for many millennia, scenery that ranks among the planet’s most dramatic, the extraordinary hospitality of people who have a long tradition of welcoming guests and the thrill of visiting lands that few tourists (yet) reach.
An old friend, Cyrus Etemadi from Teheran now assures me that visa issues that have been problematic for Canadian travellers venturing to Iran are now ironed out; our agent in Ashkebat advises that now the application for travel documents for independent travellers to Turkmenistan has been reduced to about 30 days, and that approvals are (almost) automatic. Life on the peculiar-travel front is looking up!
It was great to see my friend Ia Tabagari, the GM of Caucuses Travel in Tbilisi. The Russian incursion caused a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of her business, but now, the Europeans are heading back, and they (and we) hope that visitor numbers from North America will start to climb.
The global economic malaise does cast a pall over the event, but it is comforting to see so much enthusiasm and opportunity in one location.
The World Travel Market is an important show; now, its importance has grown from simply economic and commercial importance to the travel industry to embrace the wider responsibility of introducing the world to the world. I love it, and look forward to bringing more stories to you as the show goes on.