Delegates hail busy first day at World Travel Market

  The World Travel Market London had a busy first day (2 November) of business deals and networking.   The speed networking session kicked off WTM London and drew crowds of buyers and sellers in a bid to help them make contact to converse with throughout the rest of the event.   Industry professionals gathered to hear BBC’s Stephen Sackur interview former Manchester United CEO David Gill at the World Travel Leaders lunch, and expert panellists discussed travel trends from the World Travel Market 2015 Industry Report at the WTM Forecast Forum.   The event welcomed senior executives and tourism representatives from destinations such as Greece, Egypt, and Mexico, to share news about growth in visitor numbers and plans for further expansion in 2016.   Simon Press, WTM London senior director, said: “We have had a fantastic start. We had 211 buyers meeting a host of exhibitors for the speed networking session before the event opened this morning, and we have had good feedback from the exhibition floor.”   “We expert there to be 1.1m on-stand meetings this week, generating £2.5b in business deals.”