World Travel Market London / Day One

Originally Published: November 7, 2011 on the former American Airlines' BlackAtlas.com

Somebody pinch me. Hard.

I just got back to my hotel room and I’m spinning.

When I left Paris yesterday and jumped on the Eurostar to London for World Travel Market, I had no idea what I could expect. And because I operate from a place of “no expectations,” that suited me just fine. I figured I would just show up. Walk the floor. And see some really cool global travel stuff, whatever that might be. I didn’t know that I would walk away from my first day of World Travel Market London feeling more like a global citizen than I EVER have before. I didn’t know that I would walk away anxious to go back for more. I just didn’t know. I’m so happy to be here. And in many ways, I really don’t believe it.

Even though I missed the hotel shuttle this morning to the WTM venue at ExCel London, I caught a cab (22 pounds going and 17 pounds back – go figure) and arrived at around 10 am. Pre-printed press badge in hand, I admit I felt a little overwhelmed at first. And then I took a deep breath and started walking.

My first stop was the Just a Drop booth, a humanitarian project that “raises money to build wells, install boreholes and hand pumps, and carry out sanitation and health education programmes in some of the poorest parts of the developing world. [Their] mission is to reduce child mortality by delivering accessible, clean, safe water where it is needed most.” I hung out for about 20 minutes, gathered some information and made a donation. You can read more about that on OneBrownGirl.com®. Then I travelled the world, all within the confines of the ExCel conference center...starting off in the Caribbean.

I chatted with representatives from the Dominican Republic; gave a friendly Bajan-Yankee shout out at the Barbados booth; spoke to a lovely young woman at the Puerto Rico Convention and Visitors Bureau; and re-connected with Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations Alex de Brito e Cunha from Elite Island Resorts. I stopped by the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority booth and said hello on behalf of Juanna from @TripAntigua as she requested. Then I spotted the British Virgin Islands booth and chatted up Patrick D. Conway, Managing Director at The Sugar Mill, a small boutique hotel on Tortola. We talked about my upcoming sailing trip in the BVIs, my upcoming stay at Long Bay Beach Resort & Villas and the dolphin encounter on Tortola during my Caribbean OBG Adventure Camps program.

After that, I spent a good amount of time with a delightful Tourism Adviser from the Honduras where I learned about all that the Honduras has to offer. Then I headed straight towards the Turks and Caicos Islands booth and got a chance to talk to Anya, Tracey & Stacey about “the Real TCIs” and about some land I own on North Caicos that I’d love to build on one day. I smiled broadly when I turned a corner and saw a sign for the French Caribbean and had some time with a young lady from the Guadeloupe Islands Tourist Board who scolded me for not visiting Guadeloupe on my adventures to Martinique. I assured her that it would not happen again.

I took a delightful photo of a girl in a pretty red dress who represented Ecuador. She shyly gave me an Ecuadorian flag that I twirled around between my fingers for hours. And while I did a walk-through of the booths representing Central America, I’m purposely going back to this area tomorrow for more. More what, I don’t know. Just more.

The United States was in the house as well and I specifically made a note to stop by the California booth (woot!) where both San Francisco and Los Angeles were represented. And the highlight? I went to the Homeland Security / Global Entry booth and they are going to process my Global Entry application ON THE SPOT tomorrow!!! (Long story, but I applied for the wrong global pass – NEXUS – and have been procrastinating about starting the process all over again. Lo and behold, I don’t have to!) World Travel Market London is in house!

After hanging out in my homeland (and not for long either), I went along to Fiji and Thailand and learned more about Fijian culture and the work of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand. I stopped by Brasil (where I learned about TAM Airlines), India, Sri Lanka, Abu Dhabi, Jordan and Emirates airlines where I got to experience what it means to fly first class. Wow. I spent an hour sitting with a representative from Southern Africa who wants to send me to Lesotho, Johannesburg and Swaziland (I told you to pinch me, didn’t I?). If my hour-long conversation wasn’t a dream, we’re going to cook up something big that goes beyond a mere press trip. After South Africa, I went to East Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Italy, Tuscany, Turkey, Slovenia and Holland. And then I got conference center jet lag and had to stop. There’s always tomorrow, I kept telling myself. Pace yourself, Tracey. The world isn’t going anywhere just yet.

Stay tuned for Day 2 of World Travel Market London.

For photos from Day 1, please click here.