WTM Offers Cash Prize for Inspirational Start-Ups

London (United Kingdom) – September 25, 2013 – Technology-driven trip planning and travel inspiration start-ups can win £5,000 in a new WTM initiative, Fresh, sponsored by Sabre Travel Network as part of the dedicated Travel Tech Show at WTM.

WTM Fresh will focus on companies less than a year old which have innovative and viable ideas for using technology – such as web, mobile, social, app or a combination of these – to help consumers with trip planning and travel inspiration before and during a trip.

WTM Fresh is organised by social and digital travel consultancy Travel Perspective, which is producing a number of seminars on social media at WTM 2013. Travel Perspective co-founder Mark Frary is chairman of the judging panel.

Other judges include Lee Hayhurst, editor of Travolution, The Travel Tech Show at WTM’s official media partner, Joakim Everstin, Innovations Manager, Sabre Travel Network as well as start-up accelerator ignite100’s Paul Smith.

As well as a £5,000 cash prize, the winner will also receive mentoring from the sponsor Sabre and other members of the judging panel.

Mark Frary said: “Trip planning and travel inspiration are arguably the areas where technology can have the biggest impact on consumers. There are countless start-ups who believe they have come up with the next big thing in travel but this is an area where there is still scope for innovative ideas that can work for the travel industry both today and tomorrow.”

Joakim Everstein added: “Sabre prides itself on being an innovator, and we are delighted to have this opportunity to contribute to this exciting WTM initiative.”

Full details about how to apply can be found at www.wtmlondon.com/fresh. Entries should be submitted by 16 October. The six shortlisted entries will be invited to present their business plans to the judges and to WTM visitors on the Wednesday of WTM 2013.

Travel Tech Show at WTM Sales Manager Jo Marshall, concluded: “The Travel Technology Show at WTM goes from strength to strength. As well as seminars featuring established tech giants such as Google, Amadeus and TripAdvisor, visitors to WTM 2013 will also have a chance to see what travel businesses less than a year old are doing with technology.”

About World Travel Market
World Travel Market, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.

Almost 48,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on ExCeL – London every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.

WTM, now in its 34th year, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.

WTM 2012 generated £1,860 million of travel industry contracts, revealed independent research by Fusion Communications.

WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.

In 2012, RE held more than 460 events in 36 countries bringing together more than seven million people from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.

Reed Travel Exhibitions
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry. Its wide-ranging portfolio of events around the globe covers leisure travel, luxury travel, meetings, incentives and business travel, as well as golf, ski and spa travel.

The 19 events are; World Travel Market (WTM), World Travel Market Latin America (WTM Latin America), Arabian Travel Market (ATM), International French Travel Market Top Resa (IFTM), International Golf Travel Market (IGTM), International Ski Travel Market (ISTM), International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM), International Luxury Travel Market Asia (ILTM Asia), International Luxury Travel Market Americas (ILTM Americas), International Luxury Travel Market Africa (ILTM Africa), International Luxury Travel Market Japan (ILTM Japan), International Luxury Travel Market Spa (ILTM Spa), Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) (owned by Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau), Global Exhibition for Incentive, Business Travel, and Meetings (EIBTM), Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (GIBTM), Americas Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (AIBTM), China Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (CIBTM), India Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings (IBTM India) and Business Travel Market.

September 2013 will see the launch of IBTM India in Mumbai, India, and another exciting launch in the ski travel sector, with International Ski Travel Market in March 2014.

RTE is a business unit of Reed Exhibitions.

About Reed Exhibitions
Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organizer, with over 500 events in 39 countries. In 2011 Reed brought together six million active event participants from around the world, generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organized by 33 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 44 industry sectors with trade and consumer events and is part of the Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider and a FTSE 100 company. www.reedexpo.com