Tourism may have to do some fast talking at London travel fair

The World Travel Market, one of the most important tourism trade fairs in the world, opens in London tomorrow (Monday) with over 821 exhibitors taking part in the four day event which will be visited by over 42'000 people, many of whom will be tourism experts from all over the world. This year the Balearics will again be on show in force, especially as the British market to the region has shown an increase this year - but the Balearic tourism authorities, will be keen to try and push home the winter tourism programme in its bid to decentralise the industry. However, despite attempts to boost winter tourism over the past three years, the campaign has failed and the Balearic Minister for Tourism, Celesti Alomar, who himself has admitted that the winter campaigns have had little to no effect, will reveal a new low season strategy. But while trying to promote the winter, the local tourism authorities, will be eager to bolster the UK market for next summer and fuel a further increase in British tourism should the German market continue to go to other Mediterranean resorts, mainly in the East or North Africa. But one of the topics on the agenda for the UK tour operators will be the tourist tax as they will be keen to know what the government's intentions are and whether or not the levy will be in place before next summer season. Leading UK tour operators have expressed their disapproval of the tax and some have threatened to reduce the size of their operations and take their clients elsewhere. The bottom line for the tour operators is that as long as they are carrying tourists, they do not care where their clients go on holiday.