This is all we need. DLR strike threat just before the annual travel event of the year, World Travel Market. Travel companies from all over the world have booked their flights in. Travel companies and the press in London are looking forward to going.
Even if we are given double decker buses from Canning Town (which happened one year previously) you get masses of q u e u e s (line-ups) as thousands of exhibitors and press and visitors get off the trains and the station is cordoned off because it is over crowded.
And any timed meeting you have - you arrive and find it's cancelled because the others have not turned up, or you are late and miss it, or it is delayed because so many are late, so it runs into the next event, then everybody packs up early to get home.
I am wondering about going up on Sunday, to pick up press releases. What a pity they don't hold a networking event for press on the Sunday.
I have friends who are travel agents and they don't want to give up a midweek working day for a travel show. Move back to Olympia/Earls Court? Is it big enough?
Next year - Good News?
The World Travel Market will be three days next year, 2016, instead of four. My first thought was, help, not enough money coming, will it get a day shorter each year until it disappears? But after continually re-reading what they say I am totally convinced by what they say, no longer fearing it's just spin. Yes, three days is better than four.
I was often so tired I could not manage 4 days. I did the first three, or the first two, then in a panic the last one, or the afternoon of the last one. I would sweep up brochures from abandoned stands. I often ended up having cocktails on one of more of the Caribbean stands which played music and served drinks until late every night.
Three longer days is good, so people spend less time away from work elsewhere, reduced fees for hotels, transport to the show. If you have to go to work in the morning to deal with post and queries, still worthwhile to go in the afternoon if the show stays on until the evening, to 7 pm instead of 5 or 6. Less cost for hiring a stand for three days instead of 4.
I went back onto the WTM's own website to look for news about the strike. The website is so full of pages it takes ages to find anything, if you are easily distracted as I am.
WTM Fun Facts
I found a page of fun facts about past shows, and animals which were invited. Red rum. The escaped parrot.
I was talking to somebody on the phone about the DLR strike. My friend said, "I thought the trains were driverless?" Even so, you need all the staff to sell ticket, and stand on platforms directing passengers, ensuring safety.
http://news.wtmlondon.com/press/35-world-travel-market-facts/
https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/wtm-in-talks-with-transport-bosses-over-strike-threat-1340
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Travel_Market
http://www.wtmlondon.com
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker, author.
Even if we are given double decker buses from Canning Town (which happened one year previously) you get masses of q u e u e s (line-ups) as thousands of exhibitors and press and visitors get off the trains and the station is cordoned off because it is over crowded.
And any timed meeting you have - you arrive and find it's cancelled because the others have not turned up, or you are late and miss it, or it is delayed because so many are late, so it runs into the next event, then everybody packs up early to get home.
I am wondering about going up on Sunday, to pick up press releases. What a pity they don't hold a networking event for press on the Sunday.
I have friends who are travel agents and they don't want to give up a midweek working day for a travel show. Move back to Olympia/Earls Court? Is it big enough?
Next year - Good News?
The World Travel Market will be three days next year, 2016, instead of four. My first thought was, help, not enough money coming, will it get a day shorter each year until it disappears? But after continually re-reading what they say I am totally convinced by what they say, no longer fearing it's just spin. Yes, three days is better than four.
I was often so tired I could not manage 4 days. I did the first three, or the first two, then in a panic the last one, or the afternoon of the last one. I would sweep up brochures from abandoned stands. I often ended up having cocktails on one of more of the Caribbean stands which played music and served drinks until late every night.
Three longer days is good, so people spend less time away from work elsewhere, reduced fees for hotels, transport to the show. If you have to go to work in the morning to deal with post and queries, still worthwhile to go in the afternoon if the show stays on until the evening, to 7 pm instead of 5 or 6. Less cost for hiring a stand for three days instead of 4.
I went back onto the WTM's own website to look for news about the strike. The website is so full of pages it takes ages to find anything, if you are easily distracted as I am.
WTM Fun Facts
I found a page of fun facts about past shows, and animals which were invited. Red rum. The escaped parrot.
I was talking to somebody on the phone about the DLR strike. My friend said, "I thought the trains were driverless?" Even so, you need all the staff to sell ticket, and stand on platforms directing passengers, ensuring safety.
http://news.wtmlondon.com/press/35-world-travel-market-facts/
https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/wtm-in-talks-with-transport-bosses-over-strike-threat-1340
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Travel_Market
http://www.wtmlondon.com
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker, author.
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