World Travel Market (WTM) 2016 has proven to be a resounding success for Barbados thanks to the hard work and inspiration of Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and partners.

Staged annually at London’s Excel Centre, WTM is the leading global travel industry event, attracting over 50,000 trade visitors. This year saw a new format – longer days and a shorter week – with this year’s trade show spanning three days.

This year, the BTMI stand was designed around the theme, Legends and Legacy, brought to life by the presence of sporting and music legends Sir Garfield ‘Garry’ Sobers, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, Red Plastic Bag and The Mighty Gabby.

In a tribute to Kensington Oval, Barbados’ display highlighted the incredible contribution the island has made to sports internationally – not least of all – cricket. The stand was also designed to allow delegates at WTM to share in the glorious celebrations of the island’s 50th anniversary of independence.

From this platform, the Barbados team declared 2017 the Year of Sport in Barbados and promised a celebration of the wealth of sporting activities available on island, including amazing biking, cricket, football, hiking and running trails, Segway polo, and a wide range of world-class water sports.

Speaking from a busy Barbados stand BTMI CEO, Griffith, commented, “World Travel Market remains the signature trade event and each year we look forward to good, solid business discussions and negotiations for future contracts. We are very pleased to see that there have been more Barbadian partners attending WTM this year, including hotels, attractions and ancillary services.

“Twenty-seventeen is an important year for Barbados as we build upon a tremendous year of celebrations surrounding our 50 years of independence and what is shaping up to be another record tourism performance. The relationships we are nurturing here in London will play a great part in our continued success and look forward to strengthening our longstanding and the newly-made alliances in the coming months“.

Cheryl Carter, UK Director of BTMI added, “For the past three years the UK has remained the largest tourism source market for Barbados and continues to grow despite recent challenges. We remain committed to defending our airlift through creative and engaging value propositions for the prospective UK traveller.”