ITB Asia, WIT Team Up

ITB Asia and WIT-Web In Travel have agreed to join forces in an agreement that will see Asia's leading travel distribution and marketing conference held in conjunction with The Trade Show for the Asian Travel market, taking place in Singapore.

WIT, which just concluded on November 29-30 to positive feedback, will be held on October 21-22, 2008 while the inaugural ITB Asia will kick off on October 22. The two events will be held at Suntec City, Singapore, and ITB Asia exhibition and convention will run up to October 24.

“It makes sense for the two events to come together,” said Ms Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WIT. “ITB Asia needs a strong focus on what is the largest growing segment of the travel industry and it is the right time for WIT to have a larger platform which the brand ITB, with its international clout and solid track record, will provide.”

WIT was launched in 2005 with foundation support by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), which is also instrumental in bringing ITB Asia to Singapore. In 2007 the event attracted close to 300 delegates from 18 countries and nearly 30 sponsors and partners. ITB Asia is a premium B2B event, offering a platform for exhibitors of the leisure, technology, corporate and MICE industry.

Under the agreement, WIT will be responsible for running its own event and will retain control and creativity over its programming and management. It will work with ITB Asia to market ITB's Travel Technology pavilion to potential exhibitors.

WIT's strategic partner PhoCusWright Inc has been a strategic partner at ITB Berlin since 2006, offering delegates a one-day travel distribution conference called PhoCusWright@ITB, which takes place this year on March 6.

ITB Asia is aiming to attract 5,000 overseas delegates to its inaugural event in Singapore. More than 500 exhibitors from over 50 countries are expected to participate.