World Travel Market (WTM) 2005, held in ExCel in London from November 14-17, 2005, hosted a panel discussions that tackled two major travel industry issues.

An industry panel titled “The Premium Traveler: Is the Industry Forgetting its most Profitable Passenger?” has been organized with WTM’s business broadcast partner CNN. The event was chaired by Richard Quest, one of CNN’s news and business anchors. British Airways, Sri Lankan Airways, Netjets, lastminute.com, Hilton, Cendant, Best Western, and Yotel took part in this event. Panelists included Alan Burnett, Head of UK Sales & Marketing for British Airways, Peter Hill, CEO of Sri Lankan Airlines, Brent Hoberman, CEO of lastminute.com and David Marcus, Chief Operating Officer of NetJets.

WTM also hosted major hotel operators in a panel discussion titled "Hotels 2005". Chaired by Peter Rand, MBE from RAND, the panel featured Jurgen Fischer, President Commercial Operations of Hilton Group plc, Gerard Greene, CEO of Yotel, Reas Kondraschow, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Cendant Hotel Group International, and David Kong, President and Chief Executive Officer of Best Western.

“The growing importance of the meetings, conference and incentive travel sectors at World Travel Market is reflected not just in the number of supporters involved in the day but through our association with CNN and the high caliber of panelists from hotels and airlines,” says Fiona Jeffery, Group Exhibition Director for WTM.