VisitEngland, VisitScotland, VisitWales and Tourism Ireland combine with London & Partners to help sell Britain and Ireland to the world.
MAMA, the marketplace for professional buyers to source British and Irish product, is announcing that it has a new regional workshop that will run on 16th and 17th March 2015. The venue will be Wembley Stadium. This will be the seventh year that ETOA has organised a workshop devoted to selling Britain and Ireland throughout the world. As usual, at their core will be 32 pre-arranged appointments each day.
The first of these two days will be wholly devoted to regional England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The second day will be devoted to London and its surrounding area.
“London may be the gateway for many visitors,” said Tom Jenkins, CEO of ETOA, “but Britain and Ireland are much more than London. The new structure of MAMA responds to that. Our members need product which is new, that both attracts new customers and keeps regular clients engaged. There is much product of world importance that can be given proper exposure in this new format.”
“The purchasing teams we attract tend to be from the larger volume operators: the new format will enable them to see a much wider range of suppliers and deploy buyers with regional specialisation. For the smaller operators, we will be able to furnish them with a huge variety of product.”
“There will be a wide variety of buyers attending: from tour operators who sell Britain and Ireland throughout the world, to wholesalers specialising in far eastern markets, online travel agents and domestic operators. For suppliers this offers an array of channels to market.”
“What all intermediaries need is product they can sell. Establishing what that is, and how it can be done, is the purpose of our workshops. At their best, they are an exchange of mutually complementary activities: there must be common effort to sell to the final customer. Operators explain how they add value. Suppliers choose who might sell them.”
“In this process, the suppliers are every bit as important as the buyers. This is why we are delighted to have the continued support of VisitEngland, VisitScotland, VisitWales, Tourism Ireland and London & Partners. They bring unrivalled knowledge and grass-root contacts.“
“We have worked with ETOA for many years developing a workshop that features Ireland alongside the UK,” said Jim Paul of Tourism Ireland. “The collaboration has been highly successful with increasing numbers of Irish suppliers each year.” “We have found March Marketplace to be a very successful platform to do business” said Clare Dwight of VisitWales, “We will promote it as a worthwhile opportunity for our hotels, attractions and destinations to sell themselves to an international and domestic market.”
“March Marketplace has established itself as a key annual event in the trade calendar. The new regional focus will enable us to showcase the breadth of experiences on offer throughout England to an international audience. We are delighted to be working with ETOA on this event that is dedicated to supporting this important sector,” James Berresford, Chief Executive, VisitEngland.
Mike Cantlay, Chairman of VisitScotland, said: “This is a momentous year for Scotland, a year in which we host the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, The Ryder Cup in Gleneagles and more than 800 Homecoming Scotland events nationwide. It is vital that the momentum from such events is maintained and MAMA 15 will have an important role to play in this.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
