For those of you who are adept at including attendance at trade fairs in your business and travel plans, it may seem like stating the obvious, but even so, I still find that many ask me the following question:
Why attend?
For those who ask these questions and are dedicated to the marketing of hotels, resorts, and golf courses, we have to say that it is a “sin”. But given the objective of this post, we are going to clarify in a few brief lines the reasons why it is necessary to attend these professional fairs:
- They are specialized and professional appointments. They are organized with the objective of bringing together all the professionals in the tourism market, sellers and buyers.
- They are focused on B2B (Business to Business) intermediated clients. Generally, the attendance of non-professional public is not allowed; most are companies that buy services and then sell them to the final client.
- On the same day you meet with different operators and clients. Everything is concentrated in the period in which the fair in question is held, you will have the opportunity to have appointments with the most important operators for your income statement.
- You network with loyal clients. It is the time for “face-to-face” with the profiles you usually negotiate with by email and by phone.
- You analyze the competition’s situation. You will have first-hand information from your clients about how your direct competition is doing.
- You save on your travel budget. If you have appointments with operators located in different markets, the savings in transportation and expenses are quite significant. Many decide to attend these types of fairs to eliminate door-to-door actions.
- You expand your radius of action to new markets. Every year, on average, 5 new contracts arise with new outbound markets of potential buyers of vacation services.
- You open new business lines and start collaborations with specialized operators. In line with the previous point, collaborations flourish given the networking environment in which you find yourself.
Although there are many of us who continue to bet on “door-to-door” actions, and visits to already loyal and potential clients that are generated in these halls. Attendance at this type of fair is the gateway to this second step, which is the personal meeting that you will hold “on site” in our complexes or, conversely, at the place of residence of our buyers.
As an example we can give you these two latest international fairs, where surely the majority of professionals in the hospitality world will have been present:
- World Travel Market in London
- International Golf Travel Market held this year in the Costa Dorada, Spain.
