TTS participants full of praise

Visitor numbers to the second Travel Technology Show were more than double its organisers’ expectations.

Event director, David Chapple told TravelMole: “We were extremely pleased with the visitor numbers, as we were hoping for an increase of up to 500 visitors on last year but to get over 1000 more is a very good result for us.”

According to Mr Chapple, 3,148 people attended the show, up 44% on last year. The collective spend of the visitors was £483 million, according to Mr Chapple, and 90% of visitors said they either influence or make the decision on where to spend their IT budgets.

Exhibitors were also up, from 52 last year, to 84 this year. According to Mr Chapple, 60 of these have already booked stands for next year, 67% of whom are increasing the size of their stands. “A good indication is a willingness to book for next year – it’s a great reflection on the show,” he said. He added that exhibitors were offered only a nominal discount for rebooking at this stage, with prizes frozen at this year’s rates.

In anticipation of more growth for next year’s event, Mr Chapple says the show will expand its exhibition space and is considering moving to three days, but said this depended on exhibitor feedback.

He added that the show would not be moving venues. “We are sticking with Olympia and we are not moving to ExCel because people like a central London location. 60% of people visiting the show come from outside London or the south east and want to do a bit of shopping in central Lodnon as well as attending the show.”

“It’s more appealing than going out to the Docklands.”

Visitors and exhibitors at the show were full of praise. Genesys partner, Paul Richer told TravelMole: “The event was an excellent showcase of travel technology, bringing together so many system suppliers in one place.”

RWA’s Mark Bradbury agreed: “This year’s Travel Technology Show was a great success. The show has now established itself as the premier exhibition where travel technology and travel companies can meet to do business.”

Fellow exhibitor and general manager of Lastminute brand, holidayandmore.com, Vic Darvey said: “The theme of TTS 2005 was again ‘dynamic packaging’ with a number of new applications flooding the market in an attempt to participate in the explosion of flexibility and de-packaging of travel components… and there was a distinct buzz about the opportunities that dynamic packaging will bring this year”.

TravelOptions sales director, Tim Argent said the show was worthwhile: “We had a good show and generated some promising leads following the launch of our second generation TravelOptions operator system. We’ve already booked up for next year, which says it all!

Mike Cogan’s technology consultancy company, Equinus ran an advice centre at the show. He told TravelMole: “The Show was much busier than last year and Advice Centre consultations were 30% higher. Generally, visitors were looking for solutions that could help them adapt to a quickly changing market ahead of current system functionality. Dynamic packaging featured high on the list, as did low cost, light weight solutions for smaller tour operators and travel agents.”