A World Travel Market 2011 Industry Report revealed that half of UK holiday makers are ignoring their smartphones while away with roaming charges cited as the main reason for not using them.

Here’s some of the action from World Travel Market 2010 – the premier global event for the travel industry – that we caught on camera…

As you know we have been at the World Travel Market for four days this week. 19 stories about different destinations or events that we came across, have been put on the website so forgive us if we have provided too much reading in one go (although more on this in a minute).
To end the coverage, here are some random thoughts of what we saw and thought…

Israel it seems, is having a moment. Despite the current economic climate, Israel’s tourism industry has remained remarkably resilient.

The future of holidays and tourism was one of the last parts of World Travel Market last week.

We had heard a lot about going green, value for money and the need to bring on more hotel rooms and offers for the middle market. Woe betide expansion into the luxury end of the market. The thinking was that more 3 and 4 star hotels were needed. And if the destination isn’t green and pitching strongly for sustainability then tourists would stay away. More travellers would book through packages because that gave them security in these economic times.

Tourism to the Gulf countries is relatively small but growth is likely given the amount of investment that is being ploughed in an attempt to get us to visit. Abu Dhabi is anticipating growth of 10% for next year and 15% for the following two years. We have previously carried stories about what Abu Dhabi has to offer and it certainly shouldn’t be thought of like Dubai as a luxury destination. Hotel rates are reasonable and with all the competition amongst gulf airlines, prices are reasonable.

No the headline isn’t a typing error; this is the new slogan to entice us to travel to Slovenia. Will it work? Ask in a year’s time and we’ll find out. That’s a problem with finding quick pithy lines to help you remember. Australia came out with “where the bloody hell are you?” which certainly generated the publicity if not always the numbers.

Whatever slogan is chosen, about 2.2 million visitors have gone to Slovenia this year and, by year end, it looks as though overall tourism will have dropped by only about 1% making Slovenia a success story in many people’s eyes. The UK is the fifth largest provider of visitors but to the capital, Ljubljana, we are the third

Egypt has been one of the success stories of the last few years. Blessed with a fascinating culture, beaches on the Red Sea and a heritage that is second to none, Egypt could be seen as almost the perfect destination. Everything is there.

Now there will be more as they develop the “White Med” which is the coastline west of Alexandria and towards El Alamein and beyond

Croatia is not yet a member of the EU so is outside the eurozone. That may be why visitors from Britain rose by 2%. The Croatians like us. Apart from the fact we are only the 10th largest country in terms of visitors we spend a lot more than many others so they will encourage us to visit by offering value for money and that all important price difference.

The Maldives has been in the news quite a lot recently. Their cabinet, you might remember, held a cabinet meeting under water to highlight the effects of climate change. When you think of the Maldives the first thought is of a luxury holiday location. Now the tourism authority is trying to encourage 3 and 4 star hotels so that there is more on offer to suit every pocket. Independent travellers like backpackers are also welcome and will find it easier to get around as new infrastructure projects are completed.

Kicking off WTM is a forecast of what can be expected in the future and this comes from the research firm, Euromonitor. In 2009 they think that we will have flown 14% less, stays in hotels will be down by 16% and overall tourism will be down by 8%. The market for luxury holidays won’t recover before 2013 they think. But in the UK, they have highlighted a trend for pop-up hotels. These are almost prefabricated hotels that can be put up and taken down quickly. They are cheap to construct and cheap to stay in.

Why tell you this when members of the public aren’t allowed in. Because this is probably the biggest showcase for tourism in the world. Each day, we will have 3 people there talking to different destinations and bringing you snippets of news that might give you ideas for holidays or travel

You may have never heard of the World Travel Market,(WTM) ,but this week it has featured on BBC Breakfast, Metro, The Times and a host of other media Why? Because tourism ministers from around the world were in London and some of them have been held in massive queues as almost 50,000 people a day [...]