Fiona Jeffery is to leave her role as chairman of World Travel Market after 26 years to pursue other interests in the global travel and tourism industry. She will continue her role as chairman of Just a Drop, the international water charity she founded in 1998.

With the success of WTM Vision Conference in Shanghai in 2012, World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, will this year be holding WTM Vision Conference – Beijing on Tuesday April 8th 2013. Delegates will have the opportunity to hear from top executives of the largest tour operators both in China and worldwide, discussing the Chinese inbound and outbound markets.

World Travel Market Latin America has received phenomenal global interest in its Hosted Buyers’ Programme. Almost 900 senior buyers from around the world applied to attend the inaugural WTM Latin America – which takes place in São Paulo April 23rd-25th - as part of the event’s Hosted Buyers’ Programme, before the application process close last week.

World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, has renamed WTM Meridian Club to WTM Buyers’ Club, the leading business network in travel, making contacts concluding deals. WTM Meridian Club was launched in 1992 and celebrated its 21st anniversary at WTM 2012.

World Travel Market 2012 will generate a record £1.9 billion in tourism industry deals - an impressive 13 per cent increase on WTM 2011. Independent research of World Travel Market’s exhibitors revealed WTM 2012 will be responsible either through contracts signed at the event or from negotiations with Meridian Club members which will lead to deals before WTM 2013.

Conrad Hotels & Resorts has announced Conrad Algarve has been awarded the 2012 “World’s Leading New Resort” title at the World Travel Awards Grand Final. The Gala Ceremony was held at The Oberoi, Gurgaon, New Delhi in India.