Two mayors, a port, an airport and a new owner with big plans opened the fourth WTE Miami yesterday at the Miami Beach Convention Center, and the speeches came loaded with records.

Four years ago, Olga Ramudo and Rolando Aedo met for coffee and sketched a travel show. “That was a heck of a cup of coffee,” Aedo, COO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the crowd at yesterday’s ribbon cutting. Cuban, he added.

The coffee has gone a long way. This year’s edition counts more than 400 exhibitors from nearly 70 countries, and over 4,500 meetings were booked through the SnapCard matchmaking app before the doors opened. Sanjiv Agarwal, chairman and CEO of Fairfest Media, which took over the show last year, says it has already doubled in size. His next target: two full halls and a seat among the world’s top travel shows.

PortMiami Director and CEO Jonathan Daniels spoke of 10.5 million cruise passengers in the last fiscal year, more than two million up on the year before. MIA Director and CEO Ralph Cutié recalled the airport’s record 56 million passengers in 2024. Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner reported $117 million in resort taxes for fiscal 2026, with hotel rates the highest in the country.

Next door, the 800-room Grand Hyatt Miami Beach is due in November 2027, plugged straight into a convention center the city has spent $640 million reimagining.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava closed with a question for the room: “How many of you wish to live here?”