This was an opportunity to meet old frinds like Sapta Nirwander, the Vice Minister for Tourism of Indonesia and make new ones from Ekaterina Kormilitsyna, Minister in President Yegor Borisov's government of the Sakha Republic to Noraza Yusof, the head of tourism for Kuala Lumpur.
In their corner of the Russian Federation stand Yakutia was an active participant and for the first two days were boosted by the presence of University Colleg London student, Nadia Yegorova-Johnstone in striking national dress which drew many admiring participants. Unfortunately her schoolwork commitments prevented her attending the other two days but tour operators Georgy Gavrilyev from NTC Yakutia and Maxim Arbugaev from the family firm which provides hunting, fishing, birdwatching, reindeer trips and dog-sledding in Yakutia fielded serious enquiries.
Most of the big exhibitors staged at least one party during the four-day show and it can a liver-testing experience. On one evening I started off withn the Indonesians where Vice-Minister Sapata Nirwander arranged with Maria Mayabubun, Deputy Dorector for International Promotion for Europe, to organise for me a complimentary familiarisation trip to the sprawling South East Asia archipelago.
It was a short walk to the stand of Onyx hospitality, a Thai operator with international ambitions to take its four brands to a broader market. There I joined Stephanie Eldred from Thomas Cook's London 2012 Partnership and over a glass, or two, of excellent champagne discussed her company's short breaks to the 2012 Olympics.
Beckoned by steel drums found myself in the packed Trinidad and Tobago stand where an enthusiastic mixologist is whipping up rum cocktails, courtesy of one of their sponsors, the islands main distillery Angostura. If you thought Angostura only made the bitters which are added to make a gin pink, think again. They produce a range of fine, award winning rums. Russia is not very high in the tourism statistics for Russia but Angostura may be about to do somthing about that. While we were carousing in London Angostura executives were getting to grips with the brands success in Russia where 5,000 bar professionals at the first-ever Moscow Bar Show in September discovered the exquisite taste profile of Angostura, consistently rated the best rum selection at the show.
With Russian distributor CL Worldbrands gearing up to satisfy anticipated demand it should not be long before Russian wanderlust adds the Caribbean islands to the holiday destinations of discerning travellers.
WTM 2010 generated £1,425 million of travel industry contracts, according to independent research by Fusion Communications and this year's WTM, the 32nd, could well exceed that.
