Bianca Pizzolito reveals growth in total participants, qualification, meetings, and exhibiting brands; last day’s programming highlighted CNC debate, panels on regional integration, AI, and debates on indigenous tourism

Bianca Pizzolito, event leader of WTM Latin America, presented the data gathered until 15h of the 16^th/4, the last of the fair, in its 2026 edition, reinforcing the positive balance of the edition, highlighting consistent growth in the main indicators and the consolidation of the event as a strategic business platform for tourism. According to her, this year’s edition recorded an increase in the total number of tourism professionals, a higher qualification of the participants, a record in the number of exhibiting brands, and an increase in the international presence, reinforcing the expansion trajectory observed in recent years.

WTM Latin America went from 32,026 participants in 2025 to 35,463 in 2026, a growth of 10.75%. Bianca pointed out that, in addition to increasing the volume of visitors, the strategy of this edition had as its central axis the qualification of the public. As a result, the event recorded an increase of more than 75% in the number of high-value visitors, participants defined as key to business generation. Within this scope, the growth of the number of travel agents was even more significant, with a 115% increase compared to the previous year, reaching the mark of over 18.5 thousand professionals and reflecting the organization’s year-long efforts to attract strategic profiles.

The executive also highlighted the performance of the meeting scheduling platform. According to Bianca, there was a 25% increase in the number of meetings confirmed by the tool, surpassing 9,200 meetings throughout the event. The level of engagement also advanced, with over 35% of individual participants engaged and using the platform to hold meetings during the fair.

On the exhibitors’ side, Bianca reported that the 2026 WTM Latin America reached a historical record, bringing together 936 exhibiting brands, a figure 13% higher than that recorded in the previous edition. In total, 53 countries (8% more than in 2025) participated in the event. To the executive, these figures reinforce the position of the fair as an increasingly relevant environment for the promotion of business and the connection between destinations, companies and tourism professionals.

Bianca stressed that WTM Latin America is the result of a collective construction. “Tourism works as a living organism that depends on the integration of all its parts to position itself,” she said, highlighting the importance of joint work between staff, exhibitors, visitors, members of the Advisory Board, and institutional partners. “The success of the event reflects this shared effort throughout the year,” she says.

Among the main milestones of the 2026 edition, she highlighted the holding of the Ministers’ Summit – a meeting that brought together representatives from eight countries, promoting an internal ministerial discussion focused on issues such as sustainability, responsible tourism and regenerative tourism, focusing on the definition of joint guidelines and strengthening the institutional dialogue between the participating countries – and the Protagonist Agent campaign, which brought together more than 20 lectures and debates focused on the daily lives of travel agents, curated content focused on topics that dialog with challenges and highlight trends and opportunities for these professionals, in order to provoke strategic reflections and expand the repertoire of those who work in the front line of tourism.

In assessing the overall result, Bianca Pizzolito stated that, in addition to the qualitative feedback received during the event days, the figures support the strategies adopted by the organization. According to her, WTM Latin America’s central goal is to enhance the business atmosphere, create conditions for qualified meetings and stimulate interactions that unfold into concrete opportunities for the sector. Closing her speech, Bianca announced that the next edition of WTM Latin America is already confirmed and will be held between April 13 and 15, 2027.

On the last day of the 2026 edition of WTM Latin America, the lectures reinforced the focus on responsible tourism, regional integration, technological transformation and strengthening of indigenous tourism, with emphasis on the participation of the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC, Confederação Nacional do Comércio de Bens, Serviços e Turismo) that held a seminar on relevant topic in the regional scenario. Under the theme “Public Policies to Strengthen Responsible Tourism”, Aline Lopes, manager of the Business Council of Tourism and Hospitality at CNC, defended that public policies have a strategic role for a more sustainable, inclusive and competitive tourism in Brazil, and stressed the need for articulation between public sector, private sector and representative entities.

To her, integrated planning and qualification of the tourist offer contribute to data intelligence and to the construction of more responsible and resilient destinations, reconciling economic growth, environmental preservation and respect for local communities. Aline also dimensioned CNC’s performance as a union agent of the travel market at different levels in the country and cited initiatives such as the “Vai Turismo” project, launched during the pandemic, and the Responsible Tourism Campaign, which brings together reflections and good practices to guide the growth of the sector.

She also highlighted the production of competitive intelligence, workshops, debates, creation and monitoring of public policies as essential fronts, concluding that expanding the participation of tourism at different levels of government, aligning actions with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Smart Tourist Destinations (DTI, Destinos Turísticos Inteligentes), it is decisive to “shape the tourism we want”.

The WTM agenda also brought an advocacy for regional integration in the panel “America for America”. Veronica Pardo, former Minister of Tourism of Chile, said that the unification of Latin countries is essential to transform Latin America into a global tourist power and drew attention to the need to look more at the neighboring borders and the natural and cultural wealth of the very continent. To her, in a scenario in which travelers seek natural experiences and beauties, Latin America has “golden destination” and should regard tourism among Latin countries as a movement closer to domestic tourism, in logic of integration.

In the innovation axis, the lecture “The New Traveler ‘AI-First’: How Artificial Intelligence changed the Journey of Purchase and Consumption in Tourism”, with Ricardo Souza, Revenue Growth Leader Mexico, Latin America and The Caribbean at Lighthouse, pointed to a strong change in the way consumers plan and buy travel. He assessed that AI has made searches faster and raised the demand for answers, arguing that the focus should be information and content — not just price and links — because the more information the company offers, the more material AI generates to support customer decision.

Two debates focused on indigenous tourism in Latin America. In “Policies, alliances and international cooperation to strengthen indigenous tourism,” representatives of governments and organizations discussed the creation of favorable conditions through public policies, financing, cooperation and institutional strengthening, with the presence of Jean-Philipe Le Moigne (Destination Original Indigenous), Harris Whitbeck (Institute of Tourism of Guatemala), Julliana Bettini (IDB), Arianna Cevallos and Juliana Paula de Paiva Oliveira. The group agreed on the urgency of ensuring the participation of indigenous leaders in decisions at municipal, state and national levels; in the case of Brazil, the work was cited to improve financing mechanisms for indigenous tourism. Moderator Jean-Philipe also celebrated the discussion space and suggested that exhibiting destinations bring more ready-to-market experiences for the upcoming editions of the event.

Already in “authentic experiences through the voice of the people”, leaders and representatives of initiatives reinforced indigenous tourism as a way for benefits to reach the communities directly and for the peoples themselves to develop tourism according to their wishes. Frank Antoine (World Indigenous Tourism Alliance) highlighted the priority of caring for ancestral lands and the importance of continuous relations with communities and governments, with intergenerational vision.

Adrian Leonel Gomez Chimal, from the Kiichpam K'aax Ecotourism Center, associated indigenous tourism with community-based tourism and defended its potential to empower leaders and generate economic and social gains. Participants also emphasized cooperation with public authorities, private initiative, academia and sustainable tourism networks, as well as the incentive for professionals to connect directly with their communities and build projects side by side, with concrete results and structured tourism offer.

In addition to the training grid, the three theaters also hosted special programs: a series of trainings offered by destinations for Hosted Buyers and travel agents, as well as Speed Networking sessions with Influencers, Hosted Buyers and Buyers’ Club members, strategic meetings aimed at accelerating qualified connections within the event. The program “Protagonist Agent”, launched this year, added 25 panels and lectures aimed at the development of travel agents.
 

Press Information: Comunica Hub

Marcia Leite – (11) 9-4334 3017 – [email protected]

Luciana Gonçalves Frei (11) 9-5134 9665 – [email protected]

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