WTM London gives a global stage to new UK tourism minister Peacock

Stephanie Peacock, recently named as the new UK minister in charge of tourism, will-be on-site at Excel London for the opening day of this year’s Word Travel Market (WTM) London.

Peacock’s days begins as part of the official opening ceremony for WTM London 2025, taking place on Tuesday 4 November at 09:00. She will be joined by other dignitaries including Patricia Yates, CEO of VisitBritain, the premier partner for this year’s event.

Next, the new minister will be joining her peers at the UN Ministers Summit, hosted by WTM in association with UN Tourism and WTTC. The summit, now in its 19^th year, is the world’s largest gathering of tourism ministers, aides and advisors, with selected representatives from the private sector also in attendance. Peacock will deliver a short opening address.

At 2pm she will host a closed round-table where ministers from across the EU will discuss sustainable tourism. She is also scheduled to take part in a C-suite panel discussion entitled “Soft Power Advantage: Leveraging the UK’s Global Influence.” The session will take place at 3pm in the Yellow Theatre and is open to all visitors.

Later on, Peacock will be a guest at the Ministerial Reception, a networking evening dinner for attendees from the Ministers Summit. The event will take place at the Churchill War Rooms in central London.

Chris Carter-Chapman, Event Director, WTM London, said: “We’re delighted to welcome the new tourism minister, and we are proud that she has earmarked time in her schedule to visit WTM London. We look forward to discussing the importance of inbound, outbound and domestic tourism, introducing her to some of the major players and highlighting the major role that WTM plays in supporting the UK tourism sector.”

Peacock took over the tourism brief this September as part of a new role for her within the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), the ministerial department responsible for culture, arts, media, sport, tourism and civil society in England.

Tourism in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter. The DCMS funds VisitBritain as a non-departmental government body. VisitBritain runs VisitEngland and works closely with tourism stakeholders from the devolved nations. Its overall role is to encourage not only visits to all regions of the UK but also to promote Britain as a year-round destination.

Peacock’s predecessor, Sir Chris Bryant, had been the tourism minister for just over a year. He will also be attending WTM London 2025 in his new role as Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade. His appointment this September opened up the tourism brief for Peacock, who retains responsibility for sport, civil society and youth from her previous DCMS position.

Bryant is expected to be on-site on the Thursday 6 November, and will host the closing keynote interview with actor and writer Richard E Grant at 3:30pm on the Yellow Stage.

Carter-Chapman, Event Director at WTM London added; “We were talking to Sir Chris before his move to trade. It’s a positive sign that he’s still interested in tourism and the role that it plays as part of the UK’s overall balance of trade”.

Tourism is worth £145.8 billion to the UK economy, equivalent to 6.5% of UK GDP. It supports 3.8 million jobs, 1.6 million of which are directly related to tourism. Nearly 330,000 businesses are defined as tourism business, three out of four of which are microbusinesses.

WTM London is itself an important part of the UK tourism industry and a significant contributor to the London economy. Last year’s event welcomed more than 40,000 travel professionals, four out of five (82%) of whom visited from overseas, spending money on transport, accommodation, and entertainment during their time in London and research suggests this is worth around £200 million to London.

Carter-Chapman concluded: “With VisitBritain confirmed as the Premier Partner, this year’s event sees an even stronger government presence at WTM London, which reflects not only how important the travel and tourism industry is to the UK authorities but also the role that WTM London plays to support that industry.”