We attended World Travel Market at Excel earlier this week (4-6 November) and took over 20,000 steps each day to discover and explore some of the amazing destinations.
We’re back from a full-on few days in the big smoke! We attended World Travel Market at Excel earlier this week (4-6 November) and took over 20,000 steps each day to discover and explore some of the amazing destinations and products on offer in the tourism & hospitality world.
Bookable product isn’t a new thing to us, it’s something we’ve been doing for a while but this year it was clear to see that some destinations have really got to grips with what the consumer is looking for. Bookable experiences which evoke a feeling and tell a story.
It was great to catch up with friends and colleagues on the UKInbound stand. We met a number of suppliers with Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire for the England’s Great Walking Trails DEF project. We were there representing our client, Compass Holidays who offer walking and cycling holidays across the UK & Europe. Compass Holidays is a lead partner for the Cotswold Way, one of the National Trails involved in the project. It was wonderful to meet potential tour operators and raise the awareness of the trail and the product that is available for them to stock. Lots of follow ups to do here!
The seminar programme was also excellent and while we didn’t get to all the ones we wanted to, some of the highlights included gastro tourism, content creation trends and some of Visit California’s most successful campaigns. All fascinating stuff, I think it’s fair to say that we didn’t necessarily learn anything new, but these events are really helpful in cementing the knowledge we have and potentially how we can adapt it in a different way.
We have been attending WTM for a number of years now, in fact we’ve been there for most of the 40 years that the show has been going (in different roles) but it’s still as fresh and engaging as it was originally. It’s certainly still a great place to do business too; meeting up with old friends, making new acquaintances and learning about what’s new in the industry.
See you in 2020!