AT WTM 2012: An award winning start

World Travel Market, the world’s English-language travel show, opened yesterday (Monday), in London with 157 new exhibitors. The event, held at the ExCel centre in the docklanads area, hosts over 48,000 senior travel professionals each year, and is in its 33rd year. This year’s Canadian delegation is delighted with a new location for the Canada pavilion in the centre of the hall, prompting many there to anticipate greater visibility and traffic, reports TravelPress.com correspondent MIke Baginski, who is at the show. The day started off with the annual World Travel Market Globe Awards, which included recognition for SkyLink Travel Group founder and chairman Surjit Babra. Babra was nominated for the award by Canadian Travel Press, which is a founding member of World Travel Market’s Global Media Network, comprised of “leading travel industry media around the world.” CTP president David McClung was among those presenting the award at the Opening Ceremony, along with WTM chairman Fiona Jeffrey, who stated, “Surjit has dedicated his business and life to humanitarian efforts since the early 1990s. This commitment to those people around him the world less fortunate than himself deserves recognition. His charitable giving and philanthropic efforts is a life-long venture, not a one-time project.” Watch for more World Travel Market news on TravelPress.com and in upcoming issues of Canadian Travel Press and Travel Courier.