Serge Dive and David Hammond, the founders of ILTM, have joined forces with Reed Travel Exhibitions to launch an Asian version of ILTM,…
Serge Dive and David Hammond, the founders of ILTM, have joined forces with Reed Travel Exhibitions to launch an Asian version of ILTM, Asia Luxury Travel Market.
An event to allow exhibitors to interact with buyers from the whole Pan Pacific / Asian region will take place next year in June in Shanghai. The event will be the 18 – 21 June 2007, and will consist of an identical format of ILTM. This means that all buyers will be fully hosted and will be carefully vetted to ensure only the best in the luxury travel business in the region will be attending.
We had always intended to eventually extend the ILTM portfolio into Asia, even in the early days of ILTM. We realized that because of obstacles of time and distance it wasn`t possible to fully explore a market and its full potential from outside of the region, and indeed many of our established exhibitors have requested that this event happens said David Hammond.
Worries that the event would overlap with ILTM were dismissed by Tom Nutley, Chairman of Reed Travel Exhibitions. As already stated time and distance makes it very difficult for the Asian market to be fully maximized from outside of the region. There will continue to be strong delegations of Asian buyers in Cannes but for any exhibitor who wishes to prioritise or develop the Asian market we can offer a further opportunity to see over 300 of the leading purveyors of luxury travel from the Asian region. To this end we have ensured the show is in June to allow time for companies to be at both events. We believe we can now offer our customers the opportunity for their complete promotional needs geographically with these two events.
Purchase of luxury travel is growing significantly in Asia with individuals with a net worth millionaire status growing by 8.2% in 2004 (twice the rate of Europe) and now their numbers are equivalent to the U.S.A. China is particularly strong in its growth with annual 10% increments predicted annually for the next 10 years.
The event will reflect not only the current status of the Pan Asian market, but its future developments. Thus the event will host buyers from 30 different countries Asia wide. The largest delegations will obviously be from Japan, China, and Australia, but we will also be bringing significant delegations from India, South Korea, and Soviet Pacific. Once again we are ensuring the irrespective of local market size, anyone who is a major buyer of top end travel will be at the event, including luxury leisure and business travel agencies, meeting planners, and private intermediaries to the rich and famous said Serge Dive.
Once again all buyers will be flown in by ALTM and will receive a 5 star ground package. The organizers are very proud to announce Ritz Carlton will be the official partner hotel in Shanghai and all hosted buyers will be accommodated there for their full duration. In return the buyers are obligated to play a full part in a pre-arranged appointment schedule identical to ILTM in Cannes, and any buyers not prepared to adhere to the rules will be excluded from the event.
The event will commence on 18 June 2007 with a day of conference, followed by a three day exhibition. Once again there will be an official gala evening for the exhibitors and hosted buyers to allow further interaction away from the exhibition, in addition to a series of social events.
Interest is already phenomenal and we will be mailing the first pieces of sales material by the end of May. Even so because we always limit the number of exhibitors, in order to maintain a correct buyer ratio, I would advise anyone wishing to attend to contact us sooner because of demand. Also we must state that once again we will be very strict in terms of what is the definition of a luxury product and will not allow unsuitable properties or products dilute the highest quality of this event said David Hammond.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
