World Travel Market (WTM) will enjoy a new sports focus this year with the unveiling of a Sports Pavilion featuring some of the world’s most iconic stadiums.
London is home to four major sports arenas – Lord’s Cricket Ground, Wimbledon, Twickenham Stadium and Wembley Stadium – and all of them will exhibit in the new pavilion. It will be situated in the UK and Ireland region.
They will be joined by an array of top Premier League football grounds, including Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and the Emirates Stadium.
The launch of the Sports Pavilion follows the first Sports Tourism conference programme at World Travel Market last year, which featured speakers from the 2010 Football World Cup, the London 2012 Olympic Committee and the Canadian 2010 Winter Olympics.
Christian Vicente, WTM sales executive, said: “The packaged sports tourism sector worldwide is worth a staggering $51 billion a year and WTM is the first exhibition to recognise its growing importance to the industry, with the launch of the Sports Tourism seminar programme and
Sports Pavilion.
“The Sports Pavilion is an exciting initiative that allows some of the world’s leading sports stadiums to promote their historic and prestigious venues, stadium tours and museums to the global travel trade for leisure travellers and for conferences and events.”
Adam Burrage, Wembley Stadium’s tour manager, said: “Wembley Stadium Tours is delighted to be exhibiting with WTM. Wembley is the most famous stadium in the world and by working closely with WTM, we can reach more overseas visitors than ever before.”