For four days, the Excel Exhibition Centre in London buzzes with activity, as the travel media mingles with exhibitors from every country in the world.
London may be suffering from a cold snap just now, but with Calypso music from the Caribbean, Andean pipes from Peru and the wail of the Mariachi Bands from Mexico, the Excel Centre will be a welcome haven from the early winter weather.
From Andorra to Argentina, Cuba to Chile and Belgium to Bahamas, every country arrives at the Exhibition with something of their culture in tow, their stands packed with brochures and booklets. Yes it's tiring, yes it's awfully hot, and yes, every year I swear this will be my last visit, but where else can one go to see a diamond being cut (answer - the Antwerp section of the Belgium stand) or see clogs being made and painted (answer - the Dutch stand). That's the fun part.
The other part is harder. The appointments have been made, meetings set up and phone numbers exchanged. All we have to do is make sure we are there on time, which is why you'll see frustrated looking travel writers in various parts of the halls puzzling over the plan of this enormous exhibition centre as they try to find their way from the Middle East to North America, or Northern Europe to Alaska. And why radio technicians, photographers and other media folk look haunted as they search for the model who should be available to pose under the artificial palms of a desert island stage.
The World Travel Market, London 2007, I bet I'll say this will be my last one, but I bet I'll be back there again next year!
