WTM-London World Travel Market. Davids and Goliaths do battle.

Usually a contestant for The World's Largest Rugby Scrum award, London's World Travel Mart this year seemed less crowded than usual although all the way on the Jubilee Line and then the DLR and into Excel's halls there were plenty of people about. The world's travel trade en masse are not the most impressive or considerate of travellers and their sharp elbows probably did little to improve the "journey experience" for others heading east during the week. The big hitters tend to be in evidence and doing the big deals on the Monday and Tuesday while the rest of the week sees a slide towards brochure collectors and a downward move in the pecking order. Long standing exhibitors, great and small, often query the value of being there at all but then stay with it lest absence might prove even more costly. Having the world under one roof all at once does give the well organised the opportunity for fast and effective networking and for the big brands to reach across a very wide audience. In this the brochure collectors can also have a commercial value. For the disorganised and unfocused though it can be a rather expensive week away from the office clouded,- or maybe enhanced,- by high consumption of alcohol and other after hours entertainments.

The UK, Europe and USA are all rather predictable in their offerings and are assured of reasonably high volumes of business almost whatever happens. Surprisingly this year the U.K. did not seem to give particular weight to either the Royal Jubilee or the Olympics. Perhaps it felt that these don't need further promotion and are more concerned with the side effects of London accomodation being fully booked and overpriced thus choking off non Olympic demand and the percolation of UK tourists through to the provinces. On top of this there has to be a concern that the astronomic and rising cost of the APD will drive the traditional multi country itineraries which provide much of the Asian and Chinese bulk business away totally or at least mean that they make their final hop home from somewhere other than UK. Not only would that be a loss to UK airlines but as these tourists tend to do most of their very substantial shopping at the last point on the itinerary ,this spend would also be a big loss to the UK retail trade. Not only London and Edinburgh should be worried but also the new cut price designer store outlets such as Bicester Village. Overall the British tourism effort looks haphazard and uncordinated and indeed it is. That's not new and no governmemt has yet understood its value in money and jobs. All have simply thrown money at the BTA and assumed that would solve everything. It won't.

The Middle East and Asia offer high quality and often reasonably priced products which the rest of the world should pay attention to as a model. The standards of their offerings in accomodation, service,furnishings, decor and cuisine both on the ground and on many of their airlines are now the world's benchmarks.

Against all these areas with big budgets and large stands one would expect Africa to struggle for attention. Happily it doesn't as its unique combination of a wild (animals) side coupled with big scenery and exotic beach holiday possibilities and the opportunity to combine the two within a two week stay is a guaranteed draw. Especially right now,the continent should though watch the competition for clues about expected service standards and value for money and not rely simply on carrying on doing what it has been doing for years.

So what did the African offering at WTM look like? John Williams was there asking the question of whether the signs for the next few years were encouraging or worrying. Here are his impressions.............

"But there have only been 2 kidnappings and we've now sent in our army to sort it out" enthused an optimistic Kenyan local tour operator. No problems ahead for Kenya volume then. The adjacent Tanzanian stand looked busier which is interesting as the country has always followed a high yield/low volume approach compared to Kenya's general,- though not exclusively,-lower yield and enormous volume policy. It could be that in a time of tight money Tanzania holds its business better as the wealthy are having to tighten their belts less than the aspirant middle classes. Kenya's Presidential elections next year could be another tourism turnoff. They have a lot to think about and some of their pricing for what are really middle range products is looking heavy. The current weakness of the Kenyan shilling against sterling though makes it generally relatively good value for the UK market.

Eastern Africa neighbours Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda were also present and aiming to pull some of Kenya's business further west. All showed their growing confidence with bigger stands and larger staffs than in previous years. They were much higher profile than before. Unsurprisingly, Somalia was not present other than as a worry in East African minds that it is all too often labelled internationally as part of the region. To the other regional nations it never has been and never will be. Unfortunately the BBC, the Aid agency industry and even Royalty never seem to grasp that and talk emotively about "The East African Famine Crisis". This is hugely damaging to the image and business of the largely or totally unaffected countries of real East Africa.

Malawi, always one of the smaller players also had an upgraded stand. It offers some stunning scenery, the beautiful Lake Malawi and some interesting but not prolific pockets of wild animals at Liwonde and Kasungu but is not an easy or competitively priced place for the individual traveller to get around. Its near neighbour Zimbabwe has everything in abundance except , thanks to its politics, anyone's interest in going there. As result its neighbour Zambia gets nearly all the Victoria Falls business and links this up with its excellent South Luangwa Valley national park. It does not however have the volume of accomodation to take much off Kenya.

As always the biggest African player at WTM was South Africa. Its traditional estate of a stand looked as busy as ever despite the realtively strong Rand. The mood was one of business holding up well and the country seems largely remote from the economic turmoil of much of the world. The 2010 World Cup was a success and the afterglow lingers in the national mind giving confidence to tour operators and other tourism players. Violence levels which grab western headlines from time to time and were swiftly dealt with during the World Cup have not increased. Worries about next year's elections have yet to surface internationally.

Slightly guarded optimism from most countries in Africa then and no real signs of depression or panic, but where were the really positive signs?

The big one is the arrival of Chinese and other Asian tourists. A recent report talked of 2,500 Chinese dollar millionaires who are now becoming high spenders in the travel market. In their wake are large numbers of the fast growing new Chinese middle classes and the signs of them are already apparent in Indian Ocean resorts and top end safari camps. They have different needs to travelling Europeans and some fast footwork, especially on the catering score,not to mention gambling and ever more golf, is a must. There are also now over a million Chinese from laborers to managers working in Africa. Some leading Kenyan operators have already got the message and Chinese guides are being trained as part of their effort. They will be increasingly be in demand and there is massive potential here.

Back to the Davids amongst the Goliaths, perhaps the most positive new green shoot was the first appearance of a Democratic Republic of Congo stand. They were never going to find it easy but their response to the enquiry about ease of getting there and around "You will need to buy a ticket" was a tiny but significant step forward. Whatever the reaction, they will have gained from the experience of being there. At least they were saying "You can come". That is a true beginning and from what they saw in London they will go home with a view of what it is they have to do next. That's how all good things begin,- with a bit of courage and a view of what might be one day possible. Welcome DRC and we hope you got home safely despite all the jagged elbows along the way.

-John Williams and Peter Woodrow.