VisitBritain will host “Destination Britain North America” in Washington, D.C. where more than 60 travel trade and industry suppliers are set to showcase the destination to buyers from North America.
“Destination Britain North America” will be held from September 8-10 as an in-person event for the first time since 2018. More than 2,000 one-to-one business appointments are set to take place during the three-day trade fair. Tourism product buyers and media from the U.S. and Canada will have the chance to connect with British tourism suppliers to learn the latest innovations on offer from Britain’s tourism industry.
The British suppliers include hotels, visitor attractions, tour operators and destination management companies spanning the length and breadth of England, Scotland and Wales.
Besides doing business, delegates and media will hear about the latest international travel market trends and what the U.K. is doing to attract more international visitors, besides seminars on Britain’s latest marketing strategy and networking to boost knowledge of Britain as a tourist destination.
VisitBritain will also announce the launch of a new co-op marketing program, through which tourism industry partners selling to the U.S. consumer market will have the opportunity to buy into a collaborative marketing campaign, leveraging the visibility of VisitBritain’s brand activity to amplify impact and further drive bookings to Britain.
Gavin Landry, VisitBritain’s executive vice president for the Americas said: “This flagship trade event has been a catalyst for business for a decade and we are delighted to be bringing this event back to North America, giving British tourism suppliers and local destinations the chance to get their tourism products and services in front of top travel buyers and forge valuable business connections.
“The latest innovations in tourism from across Britain will be also on show with the focus this year on industry recovery and exploring more through regional gateways, ultimately inspiring visitors to book a trip right now, travel farther and stay longer, boosting the economy.”
“Destination Britain North America” has been running since 2008 and is a leading event in VisitBritain’s international trade show calendar.
North America has been one of the strongest markets to recover with flight arrivals and bookings to the country nearing pre-pandemic levels, driven in part by VisitBritain’s latest marketing campaign. While VisitBritain research shows that there is still pent up demand in the U.S. and Canada for international travel, over half of respondents had not yet made up their mind where to travel so VisitBritain will continue to invest in North America to ensure the undecided choose Britain.
North America is an important region to the U.K., with the U.S. being the most valuable of all inbound markets. In 2019 there were 4.5 million visits from the U.S. with those visitors spending $4.82 billion. From Canada, there were 874,000 visits to the U.K. (the second highest on record) with Canadian visitors spending a record $835.77 million.
For more details, visit www.visitbritain.org.
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