Tourism chiefs from Bath have started a busy fortnight of exhibitions and trade events as they aim to attract more high-spending overseas visitors and tour planners to the city.
Bath Tourism Plus (BTP), the official destination marketing organisation for Bath and the surrounding area, arrived at the two-day Best of Britain & Ireland (BOBI) – considered the UK's largest travel trade event – at the NEC Birmingham, where it is exhibiting as part of the British He
ritage Cities consortium.
Using the opportunity to meet buyers from the domestic and inbound trade, BTP will also launch a new travel trade and groups focused supplement produced in partnership with Destination UK.
Next week it will attend the event at Wembley Stadium – a two-day meet-the-buyer event that involves discussions with international delegates from more than 20 foreign markets including the US, China, India, Brazil, Russia and Europe.
It gives BTP the opportunity to sell Bath’s unique attributes to more than 120 international buyers, with the aim of ensuring it is included in future itineraries of groups travelling from each of the countries.
Concluding BTP’s busy schedule, its conference team will attend International Confex from Tuesday to Thursday at ExCel London. It is the leading exhibition for event organisers, connecting them with venues, destinations and support services. Sharing the stand with BTP this year will be the Royal Crescent Hotel, Longleat, The Macdonald Bath Spa Hotel and Bath’s Historic Buildings/Searcys.
The event provides the platform to meet international meeting and incentive travel buyers from around the globe and encourage them to bring their business events to Bath.
Bath Tourism Plus chief executive Nick Brooks-Sykes is very keen to increase the profile and awareness of Bath in key overseas markets in 2013.
He said: "In 2012 the Olympics gave Britain's profile a huge boost. However, that doesn't mean we can all sit back and watch visitors flood in. This is why BTP is working harder than ever to put Bath in the marketplace and ensure we continue to attract higher spending international and conference business."
In addition to the trade and conference events, over the next two weeks BTP will be hosting two major international familiarisation visits including group and incentive buyers and also encouraging the city to celebrate English Tourism Week.
