GP Solutions has recently returned from World Travel Market in London and brought some thought-provoking insights back with it.
This year, World Travel Market was the largest event in its history. Hosted traditionally at ExCel London, it brought together over 5,000 exhibitors and over 46,000 attendees from all corners of the world — a record never seen before. This year’s edition highlighted key trends impacting travel businesses: advances in travel tech and AI, slow and experiential travel, cultural immersion, and sustainable travel.
Here are the key topics and highlights the GP Solutions team gladly shares with you.
Key Topics and Highlights
- Slow and experiential travel: Increasingly more travelers demand longer, more meaningful journeys and higher-quality connections with destinations, looking for “slow tourism,” authentic cultural experiences, and wellness. In line with this evolving trend, Greece highlighted its “slow living” tourism, France promoted plans for “Year of the Normans 2027,” while Japan emphasized culinary diversity.
- Sustainability: Sustainability was central, with destinations and suppliers showcasing initiatives that encourage respectful, year-round travel. However, despite the growing demand for sustainable travel, there is a huge gap between it and actual choices made by tourists, especially when the sustainable option costs more and travelers are not ready to make a financial contribution to bridge this gap.
- Travel technology: The tech sector saw a sharp increase in the number of tech exhibitors, making WTM a major platform for unveiling solutions in AI, digital transformation, personalization, and B2B connectivity. The event featured a specialized Technology Summit addressing AI, data, and airline sector innovation.
- Shift in motivations: More and more tourists choose travel for cultural immersion, social connections, or well-being. Interest in wellness travel surged, with cultural and “wellness sport” experiences seeing triple-digit growth in search volumes YoY.
- Travel experiences as drivers of choice: Live events, especially global concert tours, and experiential travel products have become important travel motivators. “Coolcations” (northern breaks in Sweden, Norway, and Finland) are also gaining traction due to climate and social media buzz.
Market Facts and Numbers from the WTM Global Travel Report
The event organizers traditionally unveiled the World Travel Market Global Travel Report during the exhibition. Here is the selection of food-for-thought pieces that look very promising and inspiring to catch up with the pace of development in the sector:
- The travel industry is set to grow at a faster pace than the global economy over the next 10 years. It is expected to exhibit an annual growth of 3.5%, surpassing global economic growth of 2.5% per year over the same period.
- By 2035, the travel industry is expected to generate more than $16 trillion globally, representing nearly 12% of global GDP.
- The global travel industry reached record levels in 2025, with international arrivals set to top 1.5 billion, surpassing the previous record achieved in 2019.
- Travelers want to go further afield and book longer stays.
- People are prioritizing their spending on travel, which remains a high share of overall expenditure, despite increasing costs in many parts of the world.
- Many more tourists head off the beaten track or book trips in shoulder seasons to avoid high summer temperatures.
- Continued economic growth in emerging markets, especially in Asia Pacific (in particular, China), will also fuel more travel.
Our Team at WTM
GP Solutions’ presence at WTM London highlights the full scope of our global expertise and underscores our commitment to shaping a more technologically advanced and effective future for complex travel.
Our team welcomed multiple visitors to our exhibitor stand at the event. We met our existing partners and had profound conversations around the most pressing issues, with face-to-face interactions proving once again to be the most effective tool for solidifying plans. We also made a lot of new connections, with many of them being transferred to the category of potential clients for our company. The geography of interest in our GP Travel Enterprise and bespoke travel solutions is literally the entire world: we had visitors from the US, Australia, Oman, Turkey, Germany, the UK, South Africa, Canada, and more.
One thing is certain: our travel tech services are in high demand, and we must meet the high expectations of our clients.
Getting ready for WTM 2026!
P. S. To explore the vibe of this year’s event, feel free to check out the carousel below.
