After four days of frenzied activity, the prestigious World Travel Market in London has just rolled down its curtains. For a second year in a row, the magnificent tradeshow took place at the breathtaking ExCel Fairgrounds of the British capital.

According to official stats revealed by planners, this year's edition grew six percent as far as the number of foreign visitors is concerned, and brought in nine percent more tourism experts and professionals. In all, organizers clicked 45,000 professionals broken down in delegates, exhibitors and media representatives, compared to 43,803 attendants the year before. As many as 191 countries and 119 new exhibitors came for the fair.

The spike in the number of attendants is sending out a hopeful message that the travel industry is staging a comeback worldwide after the crisis triggered by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Fiona Jeffrey, head of the Exhibition Team, said she was absolutely pleased with the success of the fair. “Given the world atmosphere right now, there's no doubt these are amazing figures,” she expressed.

As a region, Central America made the most of this year's WTM for the official unveiling of CATA (Central America Tourism Agency). This Madrid-based organization is now cutting its teeth as a representative of a unitary tourist promotional effort comprising the region's seven countries (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama). Attendants also witnessed the birth of a new trademark –Hotel Beds- out of former Barceló Travel.

The Excelencias Group interviewed a number of outstanding personalities during the course of the fair. They were Miguelina Ortiz, new Tourism Minister of the Dominican Republic (we broke the news of her appointment in our online newsletter); Edison Briesen, Aruba's Tourism Minister; Eduardo Rodriguez de la Vega, Cuba's Vice Minister of Tourism; Rodrigo A. Castro, Costa Rican Tourism Minister; Thierry de Pierrefeu, Honduran Tourism Minister; Jaime Castañer, Puerto Rico's Tourism Director for Europe; Henry John de la Luz, head of the TACA Office in Spain; Gabriel Riera, Marketing Director of Hotel Beds, and Fausto Sedano, director-general of Bahia Principe Hotels. You can read these interviews in the news section of our digital portal on www.caribeinside.com