WTM clamps down on unmanned stands
Exhibitors who weren’t manning their stands on the last day of World Travel Market face extra charges when registering next year.
Organisers said that attendance of exhibitions was monitored this year on the Thursday to ensure the ‘no-shows’ don’t become a growing problem on the last day of the event.
It follows agents who had travelled to the four-day exhibition at ExCel in London last week complaining that by Thursday many of the suppliers had left, leaving stands empty.
Denise Hodgson, of Travel the World 2, said she spent more than £100 on a train fare to get to the exhibition in Docklands only to find many of the exhibitors were not there.
She wrote on Facebook: "Think WTM will refund my rail fare Canada seem to have gone home by 2pm ! A lot of stands are empty."
Another agent agreed: "I went two years ago on the ‘Travel Agent Day’ and it was already half empty and nobody wanted to talk either, complete waste of money for me!"
"Oxford Street calls I guess-happens every year with many overseas exhibitors," said another.
A spokesman for World Travel Market said: "In recent years we have received feedback that exhibitor stands are empty and visitors are disappointed not to be able to meet certain exhibitors on the final day of the exhibition.
"It is the responsibility of both the main stand holder and the exhibiting partners to have representatives on their stands at all times.
"In 2013, all exhibitor attendance on Thursday 7 November was monitored. There must have been at least one representative from an exhibiting partner or main stand holder present. If there was no representative then the exhibitor will incur extra charges for their registration in 2014
"This is not something we do lightly but with feedback from both exhibitors and visitors about Thursday we need to ensure this does not become a growing problem.
A spokesman for the Canadian Tourism Commission said: "The CTC creates an umbrella platform for Canadian suppliers to do business on for World Travel Market.
"However we should state that there were three Canadian Tourism Commission staff themselves on site for the duration of the Thursday manning the information desk on our stand and were available to answer questions or queries from agents to the end of the exhibition that day.
"At times those staff may have been engaged in business meetings on our upper deck or away from the information counter but all three were present. We can only apologise if agents did not locate one of those staff members to assist them with their queries."
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