TravelMole Interview: Fiona Jeffery, Reed Exhibitions

Last year one of the travel industry’s largest events moved out of central London. Here WTM organiser, Fiona Jeffery defends the decision and tells TravelMole why ExCel is ‘a much better business environment’.

According to TravelMole readers, the biggest problem with last year’s WTM was getting to the event. An overwhelming 86% of readers commenting on WTM said getting there was a problem.

Reed Exhibitions director, Ms Jeffery says much has been done to alleviate the problem this year. She told TravelMole: “In terms of transportation, getting to the venue was the problem last year. We had concentrated our resources on getting away from ExCel, because we anticipated close to 30,000 people leaving at the same time. I don’t think we anticipated the density of arrival of people.

“To cope with this we have upped the frequency of the DLR services in the morning and moved the peak service.” Ms Jeffery says this year there will be trains every 3.5 minutes between 7.30am and 9.30am and every 2.5 minutes between 9.30am and midday. “We couldn’t facilitate the 2.5 minute service last year” she said.

Ms Jeffery said WTM organsiers were going to encourage visitors to arrive early. She said: “We can facilitate people who want to come before the show opens and hold breakfast meetings. To accommodate this we have made sure that some of the restaurants can be booked from 7.30am.”

Catering was also a problem idenitified by TravelMole readers. Ms Jeffery says that to alleviate the queues of last year a number of new restaurants have opened in ExCel, and others have changed their focus from less of a sit-down affair to a meal that can be turned over quickly. she said The Fox pub next to ExCel could accommodate 1,000 diners, and an Argentinian steak restaurant will have opened just in time. In addition there is dining at new hotels like the Holiday Inn and Travel Lodge nearby.

Ms Jeffery told TravelMole the event has attracted 100 new exhibitors this year, and is 5% bigger overall. The Asia sector has grown the most – taking up 16% more space than last year.

“It is a chance for companies and organisations to do an international showcase, to galvanise activity and present a show of confidence” she said.

The price freeze set last year means exhibiting costs the same as it did in 2002, and will do until 2006. Ms Jeffery said that the ‘early bird schemes’ offering discounts to exhibitors for certain services like internet and rigging, had been more popular among some sectors than others.

The seminar programme has been beefed up this year, and includes an EyeForTravel event and a two-day conference about the future of the airline industry with the final session on the main stage. Also for the first time will be a number of training sessions for agents run by companies such as First Choice, Advantage Travel and Sandals.

“What people experienced last year was a much better business environment and instead of travelling for 20 minutes or so they had to travel for 30 or 40 minutes, but once here, the experience was much more positive.

“People stayed for longer and a number of exhibitors ran events nearby. This is increasing and coupled with the improvement of infrastructure around ExCel, people will continue to gravitate towards the hub, which is now a little further east than it used to be.”

Read our previous stories:
06-Dec-2002 WTM: The Verdict
29-Nov-2002 WTM: What did you think?
13-Aug-2003 WTM promises better transport links
09-June-2003 WTM looks for early bookers