WTTC is an association of business leaders in the travel industry and Tarsh’s longest-standing client, spanning 17 years. The relationship began in 2003 when the industry was in crisis, reeling from the effects of the Iraq war, fear of terrorism, economic downturn and the SARS outbreak. Tarsh was asked, with just three months’ notice, to run media relations for its Global Travel & Tourism Summit in the Portuguese resort, Vilamoura and to organise a “media circus”.  

 

Over 120 journalists came, Bloomberg broadcast the whole meeting live via satellite and media attention was switched from the SARS crisis to the industry’s efforts to recover. Tarsh established a blueprint for Summit media relations and directed operations in ’04 Doha, ’05 Delhi, ’06 Washington, ’07 Lisbon, ‘08 Dubai and ’11 Las Vegas.  Attendance of ~150 journalists per Summit and global exposure was consistently achieved. Since then, Tarsh has assisted with several ad hoc media relations assignments.