Feature: Preview to The British Travel Trade Fair, 2002

BRITISH TRAVEL TRADE FAIR 2002
13th–14th March, NEC, Birmingham

From Reed Exhibitions:
2002 needs to be a fantastic year for British tourism and British Travel Trade Fair, on 13th and 14th March at the NEC in Birmingham, is a great start. It’s focus this year is on regeneration and is set to be a great forum for the exhibitors and visitors to source business and overcome last years setbacks.

The doors open at 10am and Kim Howells MP, Minister for Tourism, Film & Broadcasting, will be officially opening the show at 11am and he will address the press at the Opening Press Briefing at11.20am in the press centre – where he will be available for questions – alongside the national tourist boards who will be delivering key messages for the year. This will be followed by a tour of the show for half-an-hour from noon.

BTTF show organisers Reed Travel Exhibitions have also compiled a ‘State of the Nation’ report, looking at the facts surrounding the tragedies of 2001 and how the nation has been affected. This report is designed to be a starting point for regeneration, in keeping with the theme of the show as a whole. Both are platforms from which to look ahead and build from. The show offers enormous opportunities for tourist boards and attractions across the country to shout about what they have to offer, and especially what is new for 2002.

The seminar programme is designed to support the recovery theme, and features the EC Directorate-General Enterprise’s Tourism Unit, who will present a 90-minute insight into the latest thinking on co-operation, best practice and competitiveness in European tourism. Other seminars include a “niche marketing” session focussing on the over 50s, a Tourism Forecast by the English Tourism Council, a Tourism Society Question Time focusing on the future of rural tourism, and Pembrokeshire Marketing – a new joint-venture consortium set up to counter the FMD-induced tourism downturn – will explore multi-sector initiatives to promote tourism generally.

The evening of the opening day will also see all the past weeks of planning and effort put to the test with the Exhibitor Excellence Awards on the Central Feature Area, judged by radio and television personality Russell Grant; Tom Nutley, Managing Director of Reed Travel Exhibitions and John Blaskey, MD of The Exhibiting Agency.

Now more than ever, each region is keen to bring visitors back and BTTF is a perfect chance to see what is new and how the country is fighting back. There has been much speculation as to the future of domestic tourism, but this is the place to see exactly what is being done and how. Here’s a flavour of what to expect:

° Beamish/North of England Open Air Museum unveils in March 2002 the Steam Elephant, a full-size working replica of an early-1800s locomotive.
° British Tourist Authority will reveal further details of its ‘UK OK’ oveseas promotional campaign designed to bolster Britain’s reputation as safe, secure and splendid.
° Classic Scotland – a preview of a new programme of self drive holidays to Scotland to be rolled out to group operators in 2003
° First time exhibitors Elegant English Hotels is offering 20% commission via its new online booking site
° Herefordshire Tourism will be using BTTF to launch its ‘Festival of Walking’ – to signal the end of the countryside of crisis
° Shropshire Tourism opens a new interactive engineering technology centre at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum summer 2002
° Southwest Tourism launch a new website specifically designed for overseas visitors.

It is still not too late to pre-register, register now online at: http://travel.reedexpo.com
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