”Celebs, sports stars, z-listers, oh, and some travel at WTM 2005. You could have been forgiven for thinking you had wandered into the wrong place if attending World Travel Market last week.
Sure, ExCel in London”s Dockland”s was the right place, but what are all these celebrities doing here? You couldn”t move for famous faces associated with fashion, sport and television. So what were the likes of Claudia Schiffer, Sir Vivian Richards, Jose Antonio Reyes and Big Brother star Jade Goody”s ex Jeff doing swanning around the stands and posing for hundreds of cameras?Promoting their place of birth naturally and attempting, very successfully it must be said, to gain widespread publicity for their country or a product.
Sir Viv was there to support cricket”s World Cup in 2007 in his native West Indies and to have a stadium named after him. Antigua was guaranteed big coverage from him and his fellow batsman Richie Richardson for their appearance in the Caribbean area.
Just next door, there was Windies legend Sir Garfield Sobers, also endorsing the World Cup and his beloved Barbados. He too is a great draw and the snappers were kept suitably busy.
A few metres further along, ABTN then spotted another sportsman doing his bit for his country. It was Mark Fish on the South Africa stand. The former Bolton and Charlton man was helping to promote his homeland”s 2010 Football World Cup tournament by juggling a few balls and generally wowing the visitors. And good luck on him, two days before he was at ExCel cruel burglars had attacked Mark and robbed his home, but he still made the effort to get to the show and do his bit.
The next star we hear of is Jose Antonio Reyes, the Arsenal starlet. Well, we didn”t actually see him ” almost no one did ” but the Spaniard was spotted on the Spanish stand pressing the flesh of the tourism minister. Rumour has it that the over-zealous security guards on the ExCel doors almost didn”t let him in without the correct accreditation. And his ”Do you know who I am” routine also failed to work. However, a few hastily made calls between the organisers and Spanish diplomats got the goal scorer in. However, no one really knows what he was doing there.
Now suitably excited by all these stars of sport, ABTN did swing by the German stand to see if Franz Beckenbauer or Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were there promoting next year”s World Cup. But sadly, no. Just quite a few English journalists desperately trying to sweet talk the tourism people into parting with some tickets to see Beckham and the boys. However, none were forthcoming.
In our disappointment we almost tripped over the racing car parked on the Portugal stand. This, we learned belonged to Tiago Monteiro, who has been promised a place in the new Midland team, which replaces Jordan, in next year”s Formula 1 races. Visitors were having great fun testing their skills in the car and playing a computer racing game. Not to be outdone, though, nearby Italy had also secured the services of their own star driver Jarno Trulli. We didn”t see a Toyota with him, but good effort for helping the Italians push their tourism.
With so many sports people around, it was good to get some relief with a sighting of a couple of real z-list celebrities. Don”t ask what they were doing there, just be grateful they made the effort to schlep out to ExCel and turn on the glamour. Fran Cosgrove, of numerous reality TV shows, was seen on the Fiji stand, presumably promoting the South Pacific island after his exploits in Celebrity Love Island. Certainly all the girls around thought he was worth the sight. And just nearby Jeff Brazier ” once the long-suffering beau of the loud-mouthed Jade Goody ” was also spotted. Not really sure what he was doing there, but congratulations again.
Now with all this star struck sighting around ExCel, it quite confuses you and takes the mind off the job in hand of finding news items from the many airlines, hotels, regions and products at WTM. If the truth be told, it is not a goldmine of news and hot scoops. The view is that putting out news during WTM is likely to be swamped by all the other stories and the message is lost.
So consequently, the titbits of information and in depth grilling of executives result in meagre offerings.
Sure, some of the airlines like Etihad and Air Berlin announced some expansion and hoteliers including Accor and Kempinski let on they were building a few more properties around the world, but in all honesty it was no great shakes.
The main point of them all being there ” and over the years travel companies have been less frequent visitors ” is to be seen and to catch up with a few old friends. And no doubt some contracts are signed in between the drinks and chit-chat.
The main stands are with the countries and boy, do they make a big song and dance about the show.
As ever, the Middle East representatives were there in style. Abu Dhabi won best stand ” it was huge ” while neighbour Dubai was also impressive. Jordan, Qatar and even Iran had also spent huge sums on their appearance.
Elsewhere, notable efforts had been made by Germany with its stadium feel as it promoted the football, Italy and Spain for the sheer size of their stands, Mexico for its waterfall and Singapore for its wall of Tiger beer. Of course, many others had made a huge effort and spent most of their annual marketing budget to be better than their rivals.
The show seemed to be in the best of health and certainly the debates and presentations were well attended. The tsunami briefing was so over-subscribed people were turned away.
But the message this year was definitely ” I”m a Celebrity, get Me in to Here! In spite of the crushes getting in. In spite of the crushes getting out. And in spite of the DLR (a great little railway but swamped by it all ” see our travelling suggestion below) it was a great show, the best WTM ever.
PS And ABTN must apologise, we still don”t know why super model Claudia Schiffer was about?"
Paul Norris