WTM London 2026: The Complete Guide to Dates, Tickets, Exhibiting & What to Expect

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Quick Answer: When is WTM London 2026 and what is it? WTM London 2026 runs Tuesday 3 to Thursday 5 November 2026 at ExCeL London in the Royal Docks. It is a trade-only travel and tourism show: national tourism boards, airlines, hotel groups, tour operators and travel technology companies meeting buyers, media and government delegations. Hours are 09:30-18:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday and 09:30-17:00 on Thursday. 2026 is the first year WTM London charges visitors from the opening of registration: the visitor ticket is £89 + VAT in the current window (1 October - 2 November), while qualifying buyers get in free. Admission is by advance online booking only. According to the organizer's November 2025 post-show release, the 2025 edition was the largest in the show's 45-year history, with 46,500 attendees, 5,500 pre-qualified buyers, 182 countries and more than 40,000 pre-scheduled meetings, which the organizer estimates will generate £2.2 billion in business.

The practical question for 2026 is which badge you need. A standard visitor ticket now costs money and does not include the official meeting-booking system. Buyers get in free and can book meetings, and the Trade Plus upgrade adds meeting booking for visitors who do not qualify as buyers.

This guide explains how the paid ticketing works and who is exempt, what the 2026 conference program and the new WTM Travel Tech area include, what to ask before committing to a stand, and how to get to ExCeL. Ticket rules and prices are taken from the official WTM London FAQ and ticket pages, checked on 5 October 2026. For the structured event listing, see our WTM London 2026 show page.

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1. What WTM London Actually Is

World Travel Market launched in 1980 at London Olympia with 40 countries, 221 exhibitors and 9,000 trade visitors. It moved to Earls Court in 1992 and to ExCeL London in 2002. Today it is organized by RX (Reed Exhibitions). It has run as a three-day show since 2016.

With ITB Berlin in March, it is one of the two major international travel trade shows in the European calendar. The floor is dominated by destinations: ministries of tourism and national tourism boards take large national pavilions, with their hotels, operators and regional boards exhibiting alongside them. Confirmed 2026 exhibitors in the official directory include Saudi Tourism Authority, Visit Qatar, Dubai, Turkish Airlines, Tourism Ireland, Visit Portugal, ENIT (Italy), Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Greek National Tourism Organisation, Visit Maldives, PROMPERU and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Egypt is the show's 2026 Premier Partner.

It is built around appointments. WTM London is not a consumer holiday show and it is not mainly a conference. The organizer counted more than 40,000 pre-scheduled meetings in 2025, booked through its WTM Connect Me platform, which is open only to exhibitors, vetted buyers, media and Trade Plus ticket holders. Our practical advice: if your badge does not include Connect Me, arrange meetings directly with the exhibitors you need before you travel.

WTM London is the flagship of a wider WTM portfolio that also runs Arabian Travel Market (Dubai), WTM Latin America (São Paulo), WTM Africa (Cape Town) and the WTM Spotlight events in Riyadh and India.

2. Dates, Hours & the Three-Day Shape

Buyers and Trade Plus ticket holders get early access to the halls from 09:00. Thursday closes an hour earlier, at 17:00, so Tuesday and Wednesday give you the longest meeting days.

The WTM Ministers' Summit, run in association with UN Tourism and WTTC, takes place during the show. WTM bills it as the largest gathering of tourism ministers in the world. Ministers apply for a separate complimentary Ministers ticket.

3. Tickets: Trade Visitors Now Pay

Standard trade visitors now pay, while approved buyers remain free. WTM London has introduced paid ticketing from the opening of registration for the first time in 2026. The organizer says the money is being reinvested in connectivity, the visitor experience and new show features, and that the move brings WTM London in line with other major international industry events.

Visitor ticket prices stepped up through the year. Everything below is from WTM London's official FAQ, checked on 5 October 2026:

Prices are shown excluding VAT. The ticket page banner still reads "from £79" at the time of writing, but the FAQ places the current window at £89, so budget for that.

There is no on-the-day ticket. Admission is strictly by advance online booking, there are no badge-printing facilities at the venue, and badges are emailed in October for you to print before arrival. The final window closes on 2 November, the day before the show opens.

What the visitor ticket includes: all three days, the WTM conference program (200+ sessions), WTM Travel Tech, WTM TrendFest, two networking receptions, and a copy of the WTM Global Travel Report.

Who still gets in free:

• Buyers. If you meet WTM London's buyer qualification criteria, you are approved into the Buyer Programme with a complimentary ticket. The criteria are strict, and applicants who do not qualify can register as visitors instead.
• Media. Complimentary, subject to a vetting process covering publishers, journalists, broadcasters, photographers and travel-focused content creators.
• Ministers. Complimentary, for government tourism leaders attending the policy program.

Upgrades sit on top of the visitor ticket:

Trade Plus is the only upgrade that adds meeting booking. WTM Connect Me, the meeting-booking platform, is open to exhibitors, vetted buyers, media and Trade Plus holders only. A standard visitor ticket, and the Business Class and First Class lounge upgrades as described on the ticket page, do not include it.

Two other booking rules: each ticket needs its own email address, so you cannot book a team under one login, and under-16s are not admitted to the exhibition halls.

4. The Buyer Program

WTM London counted 5,500 pre-qualified buyers in 2025, up 8% on 5,049 in 2024, according to its post-show release, and access to them is the benefit the organizer leads with when selling stands.

Approved buyers get:

• A free ticket (the paid ticketing does not apply to them)
• Early access to the halls from 09:00
• Matchmaking and meeting booking through WTM Connect Me
• Two dedicated hospitality lounges, the Maritime Lounge (East) and the Platinum Lounge (West)
• A limited number of bookable private Buyer Meeting Rooms in S12, next to the Yellow Theatre

If your job involves buying travel product, whether you are a tour operator, travel management company, OTA or a large agency group, apply as a buyer before you pay for a visitor ticket. WTM says applicants who do not meet the criteria can register as visitors instead, so the cost of trying is mainly time. Leave room before the 2 November booking cutoff in case you need to switch.

5. The 2026 Conference Program

The 2026 program is built around the theme "Resilience, rebound & reinvention: the next era of global travel" and runs across four stages:

• WTM Wanderlust Headliner Stage - new for 2026, curated by WTM's official consumer media partner, Wanderlust. Keynotes, celebrity interviews and ministerial panels across all three days
• WTM Future Stage - "What's next": technology, infrastructure and long-term resilience
• WTM Trends Stage - "The why": traveler behavior, destination trends and data, including new 15-minute quickfire presentations of trend reports
• WTM Experience Hub - "The how": experience design, product development and inclusion, with facilitated peer-to-peer "Campfire" sessions

Content is organized into six shared tracks: Access, Growth, Destination, Innovation, Trust and Resilience. New formats include meet-ups hosted by associations and partners (Women in Travel and start-up groups among them) and a bigger focus on live debates with audience voting.

Announced speakers include Sir Michael Palin, Gloria Guevara (President and CEO, WTTC), Patricia Yates (CEO, VisitBritain/VisitEngland), Rob Ransom (Chief Strategy Officer, Booking Holdings), Andrew Flintham (Managing Director, British Airways Holidays), Sophie Woodford (Virgin Atlantic) and Joy Jibrilu (Nassau & Paradise Island Promotion Board). The Future Stage advisors include Prof. Dimitrios Buhalis of Bournemouth University.

All four stages are included in the standard visitor ticket.

6. WTM Travel Tech

WTM Travel Tech is new for 2026, launched by the organizer as a co-located event inside WTM London. The organizer says the travel tech space at WTM London grew 55% at the 2025 edition and that 52% of visitors said they were interested in meeting technology providers.

For 2026 it brings together 135+ technology providers in a Travel Tech Hub, an Innovation Highway for emerging companies, and the Future Stage. Content themes include connected access, destination intelligence, digital trust, scalable growth, investment and operational resilience. New 2026 tech exhibitors named by the organizer include GetYourGuide, Nomad eSIM and RateStellar.

Who it is for: the organizer pitches it at companies selling AI, automation, data, payments, distribution and customer-engagement tools to hotels, operators and destinations, and at the buyers sourcing them. If you are a visitor sourcing technology, it is included in the standard ticket. If you are a provider, ask the sales team where the Travel Tech Hub sits on the 2026 floor plan and which buyer categories will be matched to you before you commit.

7. Exhibiting at WTM London

WTM London does not publish stand pricing. Exhibiting starts with an exhibitor enquiry form, after which the sales team contacts you to discuss options. Most of the named exhibitors are tourism boards and ministries, so if you are a hotel, DMC or regional board, ask your national tourism organization whether it runs a national pavilion you can join, and compare its terms with a direct quote from WTM.

What the organizer lists for exhibitors:

• Meeting booking with the 5,500 pre-qualified buyers (2025 count) through WTM Connect Me
• More than 1,800 travel media, per the exhibit page
• Lead capture through the WTM Lead Manager app
• Separately sold PR, sponsorship and promotional packages, plus WTM TV stand tours and interviews and brand activations in WTM TrendFest

Questions to settle before you commit. No stand prices are published, so the decision comes down to what the sales conversation confirms:

1. Buyer fit. Which buyer categories and source markets will Connect Me match you with, and how many meetings can your stand staff realistically hold over three days?
2. Pavilion or direct. What does your national or regional pavilion charge and include compared with a direct stand, and where is each on the floor plan?
3. What is included. Which items are in the space package (badges, Connect Me access, Lead Manager, directory listing) and which are paid extras (PR, sponsorship, TV, TrendFest)?
4. Total cost. Beyond space: stand build, staff travel and hotels for show week, and visitor tickets for any colleagues who are not on exhibitor badges.
5. Measurement. What will count as a result, such as meetings held, qualified leads or signed agreements, so you can judge the spend afterwards?

Availability for 2026. In an August 2026 release the organizer described available floor space as "increasingly limited" and named new or returning exhibitors including the tourism boards of Brunei, Côte d'Ivoire, North Macedonia, Moldova, Albania, Angola, Uruguay and Panama, RIU Hotels & Resorts, Serena Hotels, Malaysia Airlines and AJet. Ask the sales team what is still available for 2026, and how 2027 rebooking works if nothing suits.

On the deal figure. The organizer says the 2025 meetings will generate £2.2 billion of business. That is the organizer's own estimate, not an audited total, and it cannot be used to predict the return on any single stand.

8. Getting to ExCeL London

The venue address is ExCeL London, 1 Western Gateway, Royal Docks, London E16 1XL, on the north quay of the Royal Victoria Dock between Canary Wharf and London City Airport.

By DLR. WTM's own instruction is to get off at Prince Regent station (East Entrance) and follow the signs. Custom House is also adjacent to the venue, and both stations are step-free.

By Elizabeth line. WTM calls it the quickest route from the city center. It runs directly from Heathrow and Paddington through Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf to Custom House, at ExCeL's western end.

By Jubilee line. Change at Canning Town for a Beckton-bound DLR train to Prince Regent.

By air. London City Airport is the closest airport, less than a mile from the venue. London's other airports connect by public transport.

By cable car. The IFS Cloud Cable Car crosses the Thames from North Greenwich (by the O2) to the Royal Docks. WTM says attendees get 50% off the standard fare by showing their registration confirmation email at the terminal.

By car. ExCeL's Orange car park is pre-booked only during WTM. Alternatives listed by the organizer include Dockside Road, Manor Road and the O2.

By boat or bike. Uber Boat by Thames Clippers stops at Royal Wharf Pier, a roughly 20-minute walk over the Royal Victoria Dock footbridge. ExCeL has 54 cycle racks at the East Entrance and 6 at the West.

Visas and ETAs. WTM London says it does not issue individual letters of invitation. Once you have booked a ticket, you can request its visa-support letter through the booking process, and WTM advises bringing proof of employment and of your employer's business to your visa application. Many visitors who do not need a visa now need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for short stays, as WTM's travel page notes, though not everyone does. Check the GOV.UK rules for your nationality now rather than in late October.

Accommodation. WTM's accommodation partner is HotelMap, which covers hotels near the venue and in central London. If you stay further out, a hotel near an Elizabeth line station such as Liverpool Street, Farringdon or Paddington keeps you on a direct line to Custom House.

Accessibility. Wheelchairs and mobility scooters can be hired free of charge, subject to availability. There are 80 accessible parking bays in the Orange car park, conference theaters have closed captioning, and WTM recognizes the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower scheme. Quiet "Reset Rooms" are in S3 and N10, and a multi-faith prayer room is next to the S9 entrance on the boulevard.

9. Planning Notes and Clashes

Deadlines that matter:

• 2 November - last day to book. There is no admission at the door.
• October - badges are emailed; print yours before you travel, as there is no printing on site.
• Before you pay - apply as a buyer if there is any chance you qualify, since buyers attend free with Connect Me access.

Check the rest of the travel calendar. IBTM World 2026, the meetings and events industry show, follows two weeks later on 17-19 November in Barcelona, and ILTM, the luxury travel market, runs from 30 November in Cannes. Both are also RX events. Our November 2026 trade show calendar lists everything else that month, and the H2 2026 preview maps the rest of the half.

A note on the numbers you will see quoted. WTM's own pages use rounded figures ("46,000+ attendees", "4,000+ exhibitors", "180+ countries"), its post-show release gives 46,500 attendees and 182 countries but no absolute exhibitor count (only that exhibitors rose 5%), and its history page still quotes "approximately 5,000 exhibitors" and "£2.8 billion" in deals. This guide uses the November 2025 post-show release wherever it gives a figure, and labels the "4,000+" exhibitor number as the organizer's rounded claim.

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FAQs

When and where is WTM London 2026? WTM London 2026 runs Tuesday 3 to Thursday 5 November 2026 at ExCeL London, Royal Victoria Dock, London E16 1XL. Hours are 09:30-18:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday and 09:30-17:00 on Thursday, with early access from 09:00 for buyers and Trade Plus ticket holders.

Is WTM London free to attend in 2026? Not for most visitors. 2026 is the first year WTM London has charged visitors from the opening of registration. The visitor ticket is £89 plus VAT from 1 October to 2 November 2026, after earlier windows of £49 to £79. Approved buyers, vetted media and government ministers attend free.

Can I buy a ticket at the door? No. Admission is strictly by advance online booking, there is no badge printing at the venue, and badges are emailed in October to be printed before arrival. The last booking window closes on 2 November 2026.

How do I qualify as a buyer at WTM London? Select the Buyer ticket type when registering. Applicants must meet WTM London's buyer qualification criteria to be approved; approved buyers receive a free ticket, early access from 09:00, meeting booking through WTM Connect Me and access to the buyer lounges. Applicants who do not qualify can register as visitors.

What is included in the WTM London visitor ticket? Access to all three days, the WTM conference program of 200+ sessions, WTM Travel Tech, WTM TrendFest, two networking receptions and a copy of the WTM Global Travel Report. Meeting booking through WTM Connect Me requires the Trade Plus upgrade, from £499.

How big is WTM London? According to the organizer's post-show release, the 2025 edition was the largest in the show's history, with 46,500 attendees, 5,500 pre-qualified buyers and 182 countries represented, and more than 40,000 pre-scheduled meetings that the organizer estimates will generate £2.2 billion in business. WTM's own pages describe the exhibitor base as 4,000+.

What is the theme of WTM London 2026? The 2026 conference theme is "Resilience, rebound & reinvention: the next era of global travel." The program runs across the new WTM Wanderlust Headliner Stage, the Future Stage, the Trends Stage and the Experience Hub, organized into six tracks: Access, Growth, Destination, Innovation, Trust and Resilience.

How do I get to WTM London at ExCeL? WTM advises taking the DLR to Prince Regent station (East Entrance). The Elizabeth line runs directly from Heathrow and Paddington via Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf to Custom House. From the Jubilee line, change at Canning Town for the DLR. London City Airport is less than a mile from the venue, and attendees get 50% off the cable car from North Greenwich.

Can children attend WTM London? No. Under-16s are not admitted to the exhibition halls.

How do I exhibit at WTM London? Submit an exhibitor enquiry through the official site and the sales team will follow up with options. Hotels, DMCs and regional boards should also ask their national tourism organization whether it runs a national pavilion they can join. The organizer described 2026 floor space as increasingly limited in August 2026, so ask the sales team what is still available.