Stephanie Peacock, recently named as the new minister in charge of tourism, will be on-site at Excel London for the opening day of this year’s Word Travel Market (WTM) London, the world’s most influential travel and tourism event.
Peacock’s days begins as part of the official opening ceremony for WTM London 2025, taking place on Tuesday 4 November at 09:00. She will be joined by other dignitaries including Patricia Yates, CEO of VisitBritain, the premier partner for this year’s event.
Next, the new minister will be joining her peers at the UN Ministers Summit, hosted by WTM in association with UN Tourism and WTTC. The summit, now in its 19th year, is the world’s largest gathering of tourism ministers, aides and advisors, with selected representatives from the private sector also in attendance. Peacock will deliver a short opening address.
At 14:00 she will host a closed roundtable where ministers from across the EU will discuss sustainable tourism. She is also scheduled to take part in a C-suite panel discussion entitled “Soft Power Advantage: Leveraging the UK's Global Influence.” The session will take place at 15:00 in the Yellow Theatre and is open to all visitors.
Later on, Peacock will be a guest at the Ministerial Reception, a networking evening dinner for attendees from the Ministers Summit. The event will take place at the Churchill War Rooms in central London.
Chris Carter-Chapman, Event Director, WTM London, said: “We’re delighted to welcome the new tourism minister, and we are proud that she has earmarked time in her schedule to visit WTM London. We look forward to discussing the importance of inbound, outbound and domestic tourism, introducing her to some of the major players and highlighting the major role that WTM plays in supporting the UK tourism sector.”
Peacock took over the tourism brief this September as part of a new role for her within the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), the ministerial department responsible for culture, arts, media, sport, tourism and civil society in England.
Tourism in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter. The DCMS funds VisitBritain as a non-departmental government body. VisitBritain runs VisitEngland and works closely with tourism stakeholders from the devolved nations. Its overall role is to encourage not only visits to all regions of the UK but also to promote Britain as a year-round destination.
Peacock’s predecessor, Sir Chris Bryant, had been the tourism minister for just over a year. He will also be attending WTM London 2025 in his new role as Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade. His appointment this September opened up the tourism brief for Peacock, who retains responsibility for sport, civil society and youth from her previous DCMS position.
Bryant is expected to be on-site on the Thursday 6 November, and will host the closing keynote interview with actor and writer Richard E Grant at 3:30pm on the Yellow Stage.
Carter-Chapman, Event Director at WTM London added; “We were talking to Sir Chris before his move to trade. It’s a positive sign that he’s still interested in tourism and the role that it plays as part of the UK’s overall balance of trade”.
Tourism is worth £145.8 billion to the UK economy, equivalent to 6.5% of UK GDP. It supports 3.8 million jobs, 1.6 million of which are directly related to tourism. Nearly 330,000 businesses are defined as tourism business, three out of four of which are microbusinesses.
WTM London is itself an important part of the UK tourism industry and a significant contributor to the London economy. Last year’s event welcomed more than 40,000 travel professionals, four out of five (82%) of whom visited from overseas, spending money on transport, accommodation, and entertainment during their time in London and research suggests this is worth around £200 million to London.
Carter-Chapman concluded: “With VisitBritain confirmed as the Premier Partner, this year’s event sees an even stronger government presence at WTM London, which reflects not only how important the travel and tourism industry is to the UK authorities but also the role that WTM London plays to support that industry.”
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
World Travel Market (WTM) Portfolio comprises of leading travel events and online portals across four continents. The events are Arabian Travel Market, WTM London, WTM Latin America and WTM Africa.
WTM London is the world’s most influential travel and tourism event for the international leisure l travel community. The show is the ultimate destination for those seeking a macro view of the travel industry and a deeper understanding of the forces shaping it. WTM London is where influential travel leaders, buyers and high-profile travel companies gather to exchange ideas, drive innovation, and accelerate business outcomes.
Next event: 4 to 6 November 2025 at Excel London.
Arabian Travel Market (ATM), is the leading, international travel and tourism event in the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals. ATM 2024 welcomed over 47,000 attendees and hosted over 30,000 visitors, including more than 2,600 exhibitors and representatives from over 161 countries, across 10 halls at Dubai World Trade Centre. Arabian Travel Market is part of Arabian Travel Week. #ATMDubai
Next event: 4 to 6 May 2026, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai
https://www.wtm.com/atm/en-gb.html
Arabian Travel Week is a festival of events taking place from 28 April, within and alongside Arabian Travel Market 2024. Providing a renewed focus for the Middle East’s travel and tourism sector, it includes Influencers’ events, GBTA Business Travel Forums, as well as ATM Travel Tech. It also features the ATM Buyer Forums, as well as a series of country forums.
Arabian Travel Week is a 10-day long festival of travel and tourism events that take place in Dubai. All eyes are on the city, as Dubai invites the international travel industry to come together each year and take part in the events so that we can shape the future of travel together. The travel events that are part of Arabian Travel Week include ATM Start Up Competition, ATM Travel Tech, GBTA Business Travel Forums and Buyer Networking.
https://www.wtm.com/arabian-travel-week/en-gb.html
WTM Latin America is held annually in São Paulo and attracts more than 29,000 tourism professionals and almost 800 exhibiting companies during the three-day event. The event offers a qualified content combined with networking and business opportunities. In its latest edition, in 2024, WTM Latin America kept its focus on effective business generation and was able to schedule in advance six thousand meetings that were held between buyers, travel agents and exhibitors.
WTM Latin America contents are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Next event: 14 to 16 April 2026 – Expo Center Norte, SP, Brazil
WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa. The event welcomes 6,000 travel industry professionals to Africa’s leading and only business to business (B2B) exhibition for both the inbound and outbound African travel and tourism markets.
Next event: 13 to 15 April 2026 – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town http://africa.wtm.com/
About ATW Connect: Africa Travel Week’s digital arm, is a virtual hub packed to the seams with interesting content, industry news and insights, and the opportunity to hear from experts on a variety of topics in our new monthly webinar series. All with the aim to keep all of us in the travel and tourism industry connected. ATW Connect focuses on inbound and outbound markets for general leisure tourism, luxury travel, LGBTQ+ travel and the MICE/business travel sector as well as travel technology.
WTM Global Hub, is the WTM Portfolio online portal created to connect and support travel industry professionals around the world. The resource hub offers the latest guidance and knowledge to help exhibitors, buyers and others in the travel industry face the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic. WTM Portfolio is tapping into its global network of experts to create content for the hub. https://hub.wtm.com/
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