We attended World Travel Market 2017 with two primary goals in mind: 1) to benefit our members and 2) to move our industry forward.

First, we hosted a panel called “Getting Food Tourism Right”. We’ve observed that even though our industry is 17 years old, many destination marketers and service providers still don’t understand the full scope of what “food tourism” means. Consequently, they are not realizing their full business potential. To some, “food tourism” is the mere act of dining out, so a list of restaurants seems sufficient. To others, it’s visiting wineries. Food tourism can include those things, but it is usually so much more.

To help illustrate the breadth of our industry and the types of business involved, we presented an in-depth, two-hour-long session where we heard from some of our industry’s leading food tourism players. Panelists included representatives from Failte Ireland ,  Eating Europe Food Tours ,  VizEat , the  Piedmont region of Italy ,  La Cucina Caldesi  Cookery School in London, and  Great British Chefs. We talked a little about who food travelers are, what they like, and how to get started in our industry. Nearly 300 people attended this 2-hour session.

Of course, we attended the World Travel Market 2017 with our industry in mind. During the three day event, our schedule was full of 24 meetings from various businesses like tourism offices, trade associations, advertising agencies, PR and market research firms, journalists, bloggers, and even a television producer. Many of these companies wanted to know how to work better together with us, while we explored working partnerships with other companies like KOAN Consulting  based in Madrid, Spain.

We’re sorry if we could not fit you into our schedule this year and encourage you to get in touch earlier next year as we really would like to meet as many of our industry partners as possible! The conversations we had in these appointments will contribute to our 2018 strategic plan, product development, and marketing initiatives. Lots of exciting things scheduled for 2018!

Thanks to everyone who attended our panel discussion and who attended WTM. It’s a great event and one not to be missed. Mark your calendars for next year’s World Travel Market which takes place November 5-7, 2018 in London.