World Travel Market-London

Staged annually, WTM London is the  leading global event for the travel industry.The UK  is hosting and I took a few laps around the various exhibitors. An international showcase of the best globetrotting has on  offer.

"Strong cups of coffee from around the world and a peer group I'm having a blast".

Instead of bringing back 3000 refrigerator magnets,I return from my trips  with a collection of small but life-enhancing/extending moments.I felt the same way about the show. Met some wonderful people who are passionate about travel, their countries and their brands. In RL (Real Life), you have to (physically)  travel to great lands to get the culture, the people, the sense of place.  An event like the WTM, shatters time and space. It's all front row and center.

When you exhibit at a trade show, you put out a lot of time, effort and money, so it's important to maximize that investment and get your point across. There was definitely a lot of traffic on opening day.

Going down memory lane, visiting the Exhibitors,.... Asian,  European,  South Pacific,and even USA, the Golden State of California--- The fact that I could speak Japanese and French ,Spanish and American English... got me some great hospitality.COLUMBIA:What's so bad about a cup of coffee? Just ask a glass of water.

Ah Columbia, There are 3 things to buy here---2 of them are legal- Coffee and Emeralds. Having a cup of JOE, er I mean John— at Juan Valdez Cafe. From Sofia Vergara who puts the FUN in Dysfunctional Modern Family to Shakira whose hips don`t lie, to the Calli Cartel, who make heads roll, the country has quite a reputation for exporting the good the bad and the caffeinated.

Here is how a typical exchange of networking with the "movers and shakers" at WTM  and spokesmodels and hosts went.

Using  that line "Oh Columbia, there are only 3 things there and two are legal coffee and emeralds...so where is the coffee"....that's when they broke out the Yerba Matte. kinda hippish chamomile ish.

JAPAN

"Tokyo ni sunde imashta"...That's I lived in Tokyo...and the gift giving began, cute kawaii things. erasable pens, little post it note pads, but the best gifts were the Bamboo chop sticks from The Hyatt Regency Hotel--made of bamboo,  the symbol of prosperity and vitality. Bamboo grows  toward the sky and evergreen. I know I will prosper by using these auspicious Hashi. Domo Domo.


DENMARK: Nothing rotten there

In Copenhagen, I went for a bike ride in the center of the city. …In one street lined with uniform apartment buildings, I stopped by a yellow building and felt an intense longing to spend the rest of my life there.

Love cOPENhagen  Always ride a bike when I visit. There are more bikes than people there-seriously. So when I noticed this  quote by Danish Author Karen Blixen,  "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."-from Out of Africa,  what kind of experience did she undergo in Africa to write these beautiful lines. That's what  I want  to find out about The Geography of Bliss.

“Creeping with awe to the verge, I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi… No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes, but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.” David Lingstone Nov 16, 1855

ZAMBIA: "I haven't been everywhere but it is on my list". Nevertheless,  I have to go to a place I have never been before  and that would be Victoria Falls to be mesmerized by  the smoke that thunders.  To reduce this roaring “landmark” to examples of cause and effect and gravity  is to ignore their majesty. I've seen plenty this year in Norway. I'm hooked.

Daan

The only Safaris we will go on are photo safaris- Shooting pictures not trophies with  Daan Brink of Livingstone Adventures.