Benefits of the exhibitors

For tourism trade fair to happen, it needs organisers, exhibitors and visitors. Organisers get profit and amazing networking opportunities, while visitors get direct access to industry professionals and their products or experience launches of the newest products. But how do exhibitors benefit from the trade fairs?

A list of the possible benefits for the exhibitors is provided below:

· Sales – via a targeted audience of qualified buyers at specialised event.
· Benefits of personal contact in eye-to-eye meetings.
· Opportunities for the audience to see, touch, smell or try before buying.
· A strong brand building environment via product demonstrations, seminars, conferences and sponsorship opportunities.
· The chance to promote brand loyalty via technology displays, hospitality and networking events.
· An ideal platform to launch new products and find sales agents or distributors in new markets.
· The ability to check and evaluate competition.
· Media interaction and press conferences.
· Quality market research opportunities.
· The chance to overcome objections to purchasing decisions.
· Conferencing opportunities to learn more about future industry trends.

Despite all these benefits, exhibitors face huge competition and it is extremely difficult to have a positive return on investment in modern market. Therefore wider research was done and two solutions were found. 

The simple one is to use the consultative service of The International Tourism Trade Fairs Association (ITTFA). The service offers the opportunity to discuss the ins and outs of the business in relation to exhibiting with an industry expert, to look into new avenues, core values, target markets and the inside track on how to exhibit effectively. Experts of ITTFA have deep knowledge and very long experience in the market, therefore their consultative service can transform exhibitors marketing strategy for trade fairs into new, more beneficial one.

Another solution is to use TourismTradeFair.com. It is a new communication channel for the tourism industry as well known as an international tourism trade fair. It is an interactive electronic tool designed specifically to provide the interaction between the company company and its potential customers. Latest internet technologies, innovative communication tools, 24/7 access, reduced costs and availability in 50 languages - these are the additional benefits for innovative companies, who decide to use virtual trade fair as a marketing tool in their strategy. 

As the very first our blog revealed, annual growth of virtual trade fairs and conferences is 56%, therefore tourism trade fairs’ future is expected to turn into the world of technologies and step by step overcome the market of usual trade fairs.

References: (http://www.allworldexhibitions.com/whyvisit.asp) (http://travelworldnews.com/2012/03/21/international-tourism-trade-fairs-association-ittfa-launches-new-consultation-service-for-exhibitors/) (http://www.tourismtradefair.com/about.html)

Asian airlines profits slump

Stiff competition and poor cargo market hit region's carriers

Airlines based in the Asia Pacific region recorded combined net profits of US$2.5 billion in 2013, 55% less than in 2012.
According to the latest data from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), intense competition and lacklustre demand for air cargo had a major impact on the result.

Asia’s airline profits fell 55% in 2013

Operating revenues totalled US$171.2bn, 2.1% lower than 2012. This included a 2.2% decline in passenger revenues, to US$131.4bn, which occurred despite a 6.3% rise in passenger traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometres).
Operating expenses edged 0.4% higher to US$167.4bn, with the region’s fuel bill falling 3.2% to US$59.9bn. Non-fuel expenditure however, increased by 2.5% to US$107.5bn, due to higher depreciation and staff costs.
“Overall, Asia Pacific airlines faced challenging conditions in 2013, and registered a net profit margin of just 1.5%, compared with the 3.2% margin achieved in 2012,” said AAPA director general, Andrew Herdman.
“Intense competition in both the passenger and air cargo business segments led to pressure on fares, and weaker Asian currencies adversely affected costs, even more so for airlines with significant exposure to foreign denominated debt.”
Looking ahead, Herdman added; “Asian carriers are still facing a difficult operating environment marked by continued market competition and volatile currency markets. The focus for airlines remains firmly on strict cost controls and further productivity improvements.
“Overall, however, prospects for a further pick-up in the global economy and expectations of a cyclical upswing in international trade should give some grounds for optimism,” Herdman concluded.

Singapore Airlines partners STB for tourism promotion

Two companies to spend US$3.2bn driving more visitors from key source markets

Singapore is aiming to attract more visitors from key source markets (photo by Stanislav Komogorov)

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has penned a new international, multi-million-dollar tourism partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

Under the terms of the new deal, SIA and STB will embark on a global marketing campaign focused on attracting both leisure and business travellers to Singapore, plus the lucrative cruise market.

The two companies will invest a total of SG$4 million (US$3.2m) in joint campaigns focused on key visitor source markets across the world, including Australia, China, Germany, India, Japan, the UK and USA. SIA and STB said they will also work on the development of new “exclusive and customised experiences” for travelers.

“Through this complementary partnership, SIA and STB will leverage each other’s consumer and trade insights to ensure that travellers have a more in-depth Singapore experience that meets their needs and wants,” said Lynette Pang, assistant chief executive of STB’s marketing group.

“Consumers already have a strong brand affinity to SIA, and would be able to easily relate to new marketing initiatives and products. Together, we can amplify the Singapore story, and attract more quality visitors,” she added.

SIA, along with its regional subsidiary SilkAir, operates over 490 flights per week from the seven target markets to Singapore, including 226 from China and India alone.

The city is often viewed as a transit destination however, and STB has been keen to increase the average length-of-stay among visitors to the city. This focus saw the SIA and STB join forces in 2013 to launch the Singapore Stopover Holiday (SSH), which was intended to encourage transit travellers to spend more time exploring Singapore.

Vietnam arrivals surge in Q1

China and Russia continue to drive international tourism

Tourists relax on a beach in Danang (photo by Peter Stuckings)

International visitor arrivals to Vietnam experienced strong double-digit growth in the first quarter of the year.

Figures released by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) show that the country achieved 2.33 million international arrivals in the January-March 2014 period, up 29.3% year-on-year.

The growth continues to be driven by China and Russia, which both experienced growth in the region of 50% in the first quarter, although all major source markets contributed more visitors during the period.

China (+48.3% to 587,475 visitors) remains by far Vietnam’s largest source market, accounting for more than one in four international arrivals to the country. South Korea (+6.3% to 238,496), Japan (+9.2% to 170,772), USA (+9.7% to 140,051) and Russia (+55.2% to 131,469) completed the top five.

Vietnam welcomed 7.57m international visitors in 2013, a 10.6% increase compared to 2012. And if it continues its strong start to this year, the country is well on track to meet its full-year 2014 target of eight million visitors.

World Travel Market - Educational benefits

World Travel Market (WTM)  



World Travel Market is the leading global event for the travel industry. It is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. This year marks its 35th year and generate more than £2.2 billion of travel and industry contracts.  It it held at the Excel London every November. The event attracts 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government and international press. The event is the best place to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends. This is a Business to Business (B2B) event where as the TNT travel market is Business to Customer (B2C). 

Educational benefits: 

Travel shows offer educational opportunities for student that are interested in the Tourism industry. Students can attend these events and learn from experienced professionals. Students already studying a degree in Tourism can apply and also get the chance to extend their knowledge from these programmes. 
At WTM they offer student programmes where they offer the ITT Future You conference which features career advice into the industry, ITT Tutor Networking, The Travel Tech session where students can learn about the impacts of social media, mobile, blogging and technology and on how it benefits to destinations and business in the industry. WTM offer a programme on World Responsible Tourism Day, this stimulates, educates and inspires the industry to embrace a year- round responsible tourism. I think it is a great opportunity for students to attend and learn first hand. 


 See more at: http://www.wtmlondon.com/#sthash.opLjHlsN.dpuf

TNT Travel Show 2014 Highlights

Just want for you guys to have a look at what TNT Show looks like and offers!

TNT Travel Show- London

The two biggest travel trade shows in London are the World Travel market and TNT Travel Show. 

TNT Travel Show 

The show is London's largest free travel exhibition and is regarded by travellers as the place to plan and book their annual travel. The TNT Travel Show is held in a convenient Central London location, providing easy access for visitors and exhibitors, and has a proven track record of delivering high volumes of passengers. TNT offered 5,000 FREE tickets to the TNT Travel Show on March 1, 2014, these were snapped up and so we released another 1,000 as well as offering unlimited FAST TRACK places for £2.50. If people weren't able pre-register in time, tickets were just £2.50 on the door on the day!

People attend the travel show to gather information on destinations and even book trips on the day of the show! The travel show has benefits for both visitors and exhibitions, Advantages for a visitor would be that they gather new information on new destinations that they've never heard about, there are travel seminars, Lucky dip where people can get lucky and win holidays, Deals & discounts and travel auctions. What more could you ask for and the travel show is free of charge! 

For exhibitors the benefits are to take booking on the day and a great opportunity to network with multiple tour operators and people. Companies have the opportunity to increase their brand awareness with an active group who are serious about and consistently travelling throughout Europe and beyond. The Travel Show also offers an interactive platform to enable direct contact with consumers, assisting with relationship building and data capture. 

Who exhibits 
Exhibitors are mostly travel related companies. they include:  Tourist Boards and Regional Areas, Travel Tour Operators, Travel Insurance Companies, Travel & Booking Agents, Flight Booking Agents, Travel Equipment Providers, Travel Transport Providers, Gap year Travel, Educational Travel and Independent Travel. There are also a wide range of exhibitors are  who are not travel-based companies that are allowed to exhibit at the show. These exhibitors are closely linked to the travel industry, previous exhibitors included:  Shippers, Recruitment companies, Mobile Phone, Banks and pre-paid credit providers, Travel Guide Publishers, Educational and Training Providers, Volunteering Work Abroad and many, many more.

Stats and Figures for Travel Show Visitor Profile March 2014

» Age 

»» 26% aged 18-24

»» 65% aged 25-34

»» 6% aged 31-35

»» 3% aged 36 +

» Nationality 

»» 45% Australian

»» 28% New Zealander

»» 14% British

»» 13% Other (including South African, Canadian, American, Irish, Polish and French)

» Reasons for attending the TNT Travel Show 

»» 90% Take advantage of show deals & plan/book a trip

» When TNT Travel Show visitors are planning to Travel? 

»» In the next 3 months 79%

»» In 4-6 Months 14%

»» In 7-12 Months 4%

» What destinations do visitors intend to visit in the next year? 

»» On average 47% want to go to Europe

»» 19% want to travel in the UK

»» More than 33% want to travel to long-haul destinations

» How much do visitors spend on their annual travel? 

»» 96% of visitors will spend £500+

»» 79% of visitors will spend £1,000+

»» 57% of visitors will spend £2,000+

» Serious about travel 

»» over 1/3 spend more than £3,000 on travel per annum

References: 

www.tnttravelshow.com 

Types of tourists

Definition of a tourist

A tourist is someone who travels outside of their home for leisure, business or other purposes for more than a 24 hour period. 

Different types of tourists

Tourists are classified according to their needs and reasons for travelling into four broad categories

1. business and professional tourists 
2. leisure and holiday tourists 
3. tourists travelling to visit friends and relatives (VFR)
4. Youth travellers, backpackers and gap year travellers 

Trade fairs attract many different types of tourists seeking different types of holidays and for different purposes. Travel and tourism trade fairs provide exhibitors to cater traveller's needs. Visitors have a chance to find the holiday they most like depending on what type of tourist they are. Travel and tourism trade fairs offer different varieties to choose from.  

A lot of travel and tourism organisations use demographic segmentation such as socio- economics groupings, age, and gender. It is a very popular way of market segmentation as it is relatively easy to identify specific groups and target them specifically:

Socio- economic grouping are characterised into classes from A to E.

·       Class A- Senior managers and professionals, such as managing directors of large firms, doctors and lawyers.

·       Class B- Intermediate or middle- level managers and professionals, such as managers of leisure centres, teachers and accountants.

·       Class C1- supervisory or junior management, administrative or clerical positions, including office managers, receptionists, computer operators and qualified fitness advisers.

·       Class C2- skilled manual workers, such as electricians and carpenters.

·       Class D- semi- skilled and unskilled manual workers, such as cleaners and construction workers.

·       Class E- others in low incomes, including casual workers and those who depend on state benefits and pensions.

The relationship between Tourism industry and Trade Fair:

1.     What is the Trade Fair?

   A trade fair (trade show, trade exhibition or expo) is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities.

   In contrast to consumer fairs, only some trade fairs are open to the public, while others can only be attended by company representatives (members of the trade, e.g. professionals) and members of the press, therefore trade shows are classified as either "Public" or "Trade Only". A few fairs are hybrids of the two; one example is the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is trade-only for its first three days and open to the general public on its final two days. They are held on a continuing basis in virtually all markets and normally attract companies from around the globe.

   For example, in the U.S. there are currently over 10,000 trade shows held every year, and several online directories have been established to help organizers, attendees, and marketers identify appropriate events.

2.     The relationship between Tourism and Trade Fair:

    Trade Fair and Tourism have a close relationship in almost country at the moment. For example, From 15-19/8, 2005 Development Company Limited and International Trade promotion organizations in Vietnam Millions will now participate in Vietnam International Exhibition goods AMD / ASD Trade Show - Las Vegas (USA. This is the international exhibition of goods by the international trade exhibition ASD / AMD merchandise Group (USA) organization.

   Content exhibition includes many areas: arts and crafts, fashion, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, gold jewelery, silver, ceramics, gifts, sports equipment, household goods, furniture, Vinyl, stationery...

New era of trade fairs?

Trade fairs are the oldest form of marketing. Despite its long history reaching ancient times, it has one disadvantage in comparison to other forms of marketing - it is almost impossible  for the exhibitor to measure if the trade fair was successful. Meanwhile TV has ratings or internet has click-through rate, success of trade fairs can be hardly evaluated, especially when it comes to tourism. However development in technologies and creative solutions brought new ways for trade fairs to be operated - that is virtual way.

Virtual trade fair can offer all the solutions and benefits for everyone involved in it: organisers, exhibitors and attendees.

Organisers have big reduction in operation costs in order to run the virtual fair, because venue, security or suppliers are no longer needed, transport costs are minimum, etc. What is more, it is easier to suggest many more solutions for exhibitors, like unique environment for their virtual stand, creative design and others.

Exhibitors can  finally evaluate the success, when the fair is online, because they can follow selling rate or click-through rate. One more huge advantage is operating 24/7, 365 days per year. There is no need to worry about the best time to expose your company. It can be exhibited all the time and accessible in as many languages as exhibitors want. Ways of presenting your company, service or travel destination are much wider than in actual trade fair like 3D tours and video showcases. Types of communication can be broader as well, from live video chats to virtual tour guides or email communication. What is more, costs are much lower for exhibitors too, their is no need to supply any equipment to particular venue or book any hotels.

Attendees benefit from virtual fairs in saving time and money too. Ability to access exhibitors' stands any time you want and explore their offers, services, websites or use wide ways of communication on your computer give invaluable experience of attending the virtual trade fair. In addition to that, it is easy to read some reviews and compare the exhibitors to other trade fairs immediately in the internet.

Virtual trade fairs bring everyone into new era of the trade fairs, where all the solutions are possible, time and money are saved and accessibility is unlimited.

Additional research was done to forecast the future of tourism trade fairs and findings show that the market of virtual trade fairs and conferences doubled from 2009 to 2011 and is expected to grow by 56% annually at least until to 2018.

(more detailed forecast can be found here: http://www.marketresearchmedia.com/?p=421)