Press Releases
View All Press Releases| WTM | 09 Nov 2009 |
“Tourism can bring people together,” Mayor of London Tells World Travel Market
Mayor of London Boris Johnson opened World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, today by emphasising how “travel and tourism can bring people together in shared appreciation and understanding.”
Referring to the 2012 Olympic Games, Johnson said, “I’m optimistic about the impact of the Games. We want to use the £9.3 billion investment to boost bits of London that have been neglected for ages.
“We want East London to lose its status as second-best,” he said. “We want to make it a place where people want to go rather than a place people want to leave.”
He said that the influx of tourists that the Games will bring represents an opportunity for the capital, saying it offers a chance “to improve the look and feel of London and help to look after the interests of our poorest citizens during the economic downturn.”
He said the benefits of tourism will not just be short term but will benefit the city for years to come. “This is an enormous infrastructure project,” he said. “It’s a new Victorian age, the biggest change to London’s infrastructure in more than 70 years.”
Transport, in particular, will receive a boost. “By the end of my term of office as mayor,” said Johnson, “40% of the Tube will be air-conditioned, the capacity of the Docklands Light Railway will have been increased by 50% and the Oyster card will be valid on London’s overground rail network and on its riverboat service.”
Johnson also stressed the international nature of the capital. “In 2012, there will be visitors from 50 nations who will find a home crowd of more than 50,000 people of their own nationality living in this country,” he said.
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About World Travel Market
World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL - London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2009, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.
WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.
RE holds more than 500 events in 38 countries throughout Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific covering 47 industry sectors including aerospace & aviation, healthcare, manufacturing and sport & recreation.
In 2008 RE, part of the Reed Elsevier group, brought together more than six million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.
