World Travel Market organisers have worked all year to prevent a repeat of last year’s transport chaos on the opening day.
With close to 50,000 visitors expected over the four days, they have pulled out all the stops to avoid a repetition.
WTM chairman Fiona Jeffery described the disruption on the first morning a year ago as “gut wrenching”.
She told Travel Weekly: “Last year was hugely disappointing. People recognised it was not something in WTM’s control, but it was bad.”
The poor train service to the ExCel conference centre on that first morning a year ago meant many WTM attendees missed the opening session. Further disruption in the evening delayed thousands trying to get into central London for events.
There were specific problems on the day, but large-scale infrastructure work ahead of the 2012 Olympics underlay the difficulties.
The main Olympic site is not far from Excel and transport across London is being upgraded. Problems in the area on a Monday morning have been common since the work began.
Jeffery said: “To have no control was hugely frustrating. Straight after WTM I went to the UK minister of tourism, to London mayor Boris Johnson, to the shadow minister of tourism and to Transport for London (TfL) and we pulled together a transport working party.
“This year we have bendy buses at the nearest underground station, Canning Town. Docklands Light Railway trains will run to Excel every three minutes at peak time, and we have an office at Canning Town to manage passenger flows. There is also a walking path from Canning Town.”
She added: “Last year was an embarrassment to London. The people attending WTM are international ambassadors for travel and tourism and our guests.”
However, she said: “TFL has responded well. I am hopeful, though not complacent. I cannot rule out the fact that we may have problems, but it should be better this year. The system should be able to cope.”