Latin America trade show attracts record number of exhibitors
Experience Latin America (ELA), Europe’s largest dedicated business-to-business travel event for Latin America, has attracted a 10% increase in exhibitors this year.
There will be 61 new exhibitors amongst the 130 tourist boards, airlines, tour operators, local destination management companies, cruise and transportation companies attending the event, which will take place from June 12 to 14 at London’s Canary Wharf.
The strapline for ELA 2017 is Viva la Vida, meaning ‘live life’.
Tony Mason, CEO of the Latin American Travel Association, organisers of the event, said: "ELA is a really unique event and our intention at LATA is to really bring the spirit of Latin America to London.
"For 2017, ELA is bigger and better than ever with a record level of exhibitors. The growth of ELA shows a real appetite for travel to the region and we are excited to announce a whole host of tourism development including new flight connections, new hotels and new areas opening up to tourism."
LATA said many countries in Latin America are seeing big increases in tourist arrivals, especially from the UK.
Chile saw international passenger numbers grow by 26% last year, with an 11% increase from the UK to over 51,000. Numbers are set to rise further this year following the launch of a new BA flight from London to Santiago.
Costa Rica has seen a 12.7% year-on-year rise in UK visitors during the first three months of 2017, with January seeing the biggest rise in visitors from the UK to 8,085, an increase of 19.2% on January 2016.
Peru also reported a significant growth in tourism arrivals for 2016 to 3,744,461, up 8.4% year on year. The increase from the UK was 9.6% to 69,302.
Colombia reported an 11.4% increase in visitor statistics overall for 2016 and a 14.1% increase from the UK.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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