QUITO, Ecuador -- As part of Travel Agent's ongoing coverage of the 37th Travel Mart Latin America, we sat down with show organizer, William H. Coleman of William H. Coleman, Inc. and learned that Lima, Peru is being considered to host the 40th Travel Mart Latin America in 2016.
"Right now, it's looking like we may end up back in Lima," says Coleman, noting that Lima last hosted the event in 2010.
Coleman also told us that Salta, Argentina, which is in the midst of perhaps it most aggressive tourism push in history, will be the host for next year's event, which will run around mid-September.
"We are very excited to host the show next year and are hoping that this opens up our destination to the U.S. market and other international markets," Fernando Escudero, general manager for the Tourism Promotion Institute of Salta, told Travel Agent. "We are very successful with the local market, but its time to expand. We are hoping to one day become the eco-tourism capital of Latin America."
Coleman also told Travel Agent that the 2015 event will be in Central America with Panama at the top of the list of possible hosts.
"A changing product is how you get to host this show," says Coleman. "We look for a place that has the infrastructure to accommodate the show, that has the facilities to be able to host over a 1,000 people and, of course, the product needs to be fresh."
And that in itself tells you how much Ecuador has evolved since the first show roughly 37 years ago when you consider that the country has hosted the show six times, more than any other destination. Five of those shows were hosted in Quito while Guayaquil hosted it once.
Keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com for more updates from our ongoing coverage of Travel Mart Latin America, which runs through Friday.