Published on Tuesday, November 24, 2020

WTM Virtual was....a success (for some)

Almost a third of people attending the first ever virtual WTM London this year said the event had been a success.

While a slight majority (36%) said they preferred the traditional show, which usually takes place every year at London's ExCel centre, a little over 31% said the online alternative was successful.

However, a further third of those taking part in a TravelMole poll said WTM had failed because of the technology.

Several people complained that the WTM Virtual website had crashed during the three-day event, usually in the afternoons when the US participants joined.

Some exhibitors who paid thousands to participate said they were considering asking for a refund.

Next year's WTM London will take place at ExCel from 1 to 3 November.

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WTM 2020 was a disaster

WTM 2020 was a total disaster from the start. Examples of experiences: 1. Many potential exhibitors and visitors considered the hesitation as a sign of unrealistic assessments by the Reed Exhibitions management. 2. After WTM was published to go virtual, a company of my friends requested for the conditions to exhibit - and never received an answer. 3. Reed sent out so many daily emails trying to convince potential visitors to join and pay 25 GBP + VAT, that many several of the called one of my network got the impression that the reason is probably a lack of interest in the travel industry in these challenging times of Coronavirus. 4.I registered as a buyer and never received a confirmation. I called the hotline mentioned on the WTM website and was told, that for WTM virtual another phone number needs to be called. The other number had a recording asking to leave number, name and question, and promised the call to be returned - which never happened. A mail to the helpline was also never answered. 5.A colleague of my company registered, paid the 25 GPB + VAT, got a confirmation after 2 hours only, went online only to learn that to make requests for online appointments and meetings would cost another 20 GBP + VAT for requesting five appointments. Sie again paid and requested only 2 appointments via the system - and never received an answer, neither a confirmation that the request was received nor any response from the exhibitiors. The system did not show any name of the representatives of the requested exhibitors who could be contacted. - Summary: The money spent for "participate" was totally wasted. It's time for Reed's management to research what went wrong. The described experiences do not convince for participation in future WTM exhibitions.

By Helmut Mochel, Wednesday, November 25, 2020