IBTM World’s goal is to bring together and connect people from across the global meetings industry to create better business results. With more than 15,000 attendees expected and a reported record-setting 77,651 pre-booked business meetings — a five percent increase from last year’s event — the event is well on its way.

There will be a large infusion of new blood at IBTM World 2018. More than half of this year’s hosted buyers are first time participants, and 50 percent of the hosted buyers overall have had no previous experience with the IBTM portfolio. Twenty percent of the hosted buyers are corporate event professionals. In 2017, IBTM World hosted 3,463 buyers.

Registered buyers represent organizations including Moet Hennessy, Netflix, Bayer US, Diageo, Salesforce, Hewlett Packard, Amway, Toyota, Motorola, Peugeot Sport, Inter IKEA, InfoWatch, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Procter & Gamble, Siemens Ltd. and SONY.

 “We’re absolutely thrilled to announce such strong results for our customers,” said David Thompson, exhibition director for IBTM World.

He added, “Not only does it point to this year’s event being another highly successful opportunity for exhibitors in terms of the volume of quality opportunities to do business with completely new contacts, but it’s also a real boost for our team who continue to work incredibly hard as we enter the final stages of preparation for next week’s event.” 

More than 3,000 destinations were represented at IBTM World 2017, with exhibitors from more than 150 countries. Show officials also reported a nine percent increase year-over-year in the average number of appointments set by each exhibitor, up from 25.1 in 2017 to 27.4 for 2018.  

New exhibitors for 2018 include Tourism Promotion Board Philippines, Tourism New Zealand, Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism, SIXT GmbH & Co., Global Passenger Network, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. and Rosewood Hong Kong.

IBTM World 2018 takes place Nov. 27 - 29 at Fira Barcelona. For more information, go here.