Name: WTM London 2025 highlights global travel trends
Uploaded: 2025-12-17T18:50:16.601Z
Duration: 5 min
Description: At World Travel Market (WTM) 2025 in London, global destinations showcased new trends from slow tourism to sustainable travel and cultural experiences reshaping the post-pandemic industry.

At World Travel Market (WTM) 2025 in London, global destinations showcased new trends from slow tourism to sustainable travel and cultural experiences reshaping the post-pandemic industry.

London

World Travel Market London 2025, held at the Excel Centre, is set to host nearly 5,000 exhibitors and expects 45,000 visitors, making it one of the most influential travel and tourism events globally. The event emphasizes key trends such as slow, experiential travel, with Greece showcasing its culinary culture, and historic tourism, including the upcoming 'Year of the Normans' in 2027.

Other highlights include the opening of Egypt's Grand Egyptian Museum, featuring the full King Tutankhamun collection, and Japan's focus on value for money and culinary diversity. Sustainability is a major theme, with a push for tourism that benefits the environment, local communities, and economies, as well as attracting visitors who respect local cultures.

WTM London 2025 highlights global travel trends

With almost 5,000 exhibitors and 45,000 visitors expected through the door, World Travel Market London is the most influential travel and tourism event on the planet. Here at London's Excel Centre, I am surrounded by travel destinations, airlines, tours and experiences all hoping to showcase their latest offering and become the centre of the next travel trend. So this is the largest event that we have ever run and trends are key to it. We're seeing there's that real push for slow experiential travel that's been emerging over a number of years. We know that consumers are really prioritising travel as part of their annual spend. So 75% of consumers are saying they see travel as a key part of their yearly expenditure. Not a luxury, but a key part of it. At the forefront of this trend and embracing the slower way of life is Greece. People are really enjoying their time, they're taking their time to really flavour everything that the destination has to offer. And for that you need time, you should not be in a rush. We're fortunate enough that our culture is part of this whole procedure. So our culinary experience, the idea though is slow cooking. You need to take your time to cook your food and this is part again of our culture so you can find it anywhere. From the little fried calamari on the waterfront with your ouzo to a very nice slow cooked lamb up in a mountain. You can find it all. In other parts of the world, travellers are being invited to take a step back in time for a historic holiday. So the Year of the Normans is 2027 because it's the 1000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. And this initiative is done hand to hand with our British friends but also with four other countries including Italy, Scandinavia and also the China Islands to show what was the Norman influence over these five countries. We try to focus not on the known spots but to go a little bit aside on less known sites and the perfect example is the castle of William the Conqueror in Caen which is less known than many other sites in Normandy. And in Egypt they've just opened the Grand Egyptian Museum. It's the biggest museum dedicated to one civilization in the world. They can expect a collection that is very unique especially when you visit the King Tut galleries. The contents of King Tut have never been displayed in full except in the Grand Egyptian Museum. We're talking here about 5952 pieces. And also we have something unique called the Boats Museum. We have two of Fofo. Fofo is the name of the king who built the biggest pyramid. And these two ships were found behind the Fofo pyramid. We moved one of them now to the Grand Egyptian Museum and it's fully installed. And the other one will always be shown under restoration. So tourists will always see this boat being restored by restorers and see how they do this kind of work. Though travellers are spending more of their annual budgets on holidays, value for money is still a key factor when choosing a destination. Many people still think that Japan is expensive but it's not true anymore. With the current exchange rate of Japanese yen, Japan has good value. Japan is a paradise for food lovers. As I think many of you know, each area has their own culinary identity. Tokyo has the most Michelin restaurants in the world. And the most interesting part is most of these meals come with very affordable prices. Another key topic here at World Travel Market is sustainability. Across the board there seems to be a big push to diversify beyond the traditional travel season. Sustainable has three parts. It means a tourism that can last without harming the environment, without harming the local communities and many people tend to forget that, but it also has a sustainable economic model. You need to have the three of them, not one or two. Of course cherry blossom season, like springtime, is one of the best seasons, I can guarantee. But of course we'd like to show other seasons too. Still we are looking for the number of visitors, but also we would like meaningful visitors. People would like to respect our culture. Then we can learn from each other. Then the travel industry can be better and better. That's what we are looking for.

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