For those of you who are adept at making attendance at trade shows in your business and travel plans, it may sound like a truism, but nevertheless, I still find many asking 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 purpose 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 aim of bringing together all professionals in the tourism market, sellers and buyers.
They are focused on intermediated B2B (Business to Business) clients. Non-professional audiences are not usually allowed to attend; the majority are companies that buy services and then sell them to the end customer.
On the same day you meet with different operators and clients. Everything is concentrated in the period in which the trade show 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 time to “face to face” the profiles with whom you regularly negotiate by email and telephone.
You analyze the situation of the competition. 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 on transportation and expenses are quite significant. Many decide to attend these types of fairs to suppress door-to-door actions.
You expand your radius of action to new markets. Every year, on average, 5 new contracts emerge with new source markets of potential buyers of vacation services.
You open new lines of business 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 generated in these shows. 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, on the contrary, at the place of residence of our buyers.
As an example, we can give you these last two international fairs, where, I am sure the majority of professionals from the world of hospitality will have been present: World Travel Market in London and the International Golf Travel Market this year held in Costa Dorada , Spain.
