Reed Travel Exhibitions, announced the launch of a new exhibition that will focus on the increasingly important city break sector. City Break 2006 will take place in June 2006 and will be supported by European Cities Tourism, highlight sponsor of the event.

City Break will be a unique business forum for city and regional tourist boards and suppliers of city breaks. It will give them the opportunity to meet specialist city break operators predominantly from key European source markets in a commercial environment with two days of buyer-driven, pre-scheduled appointments. The event will also provide other networking opportunities including a welcome reception and gala dinner. In addition, exhibitors will have the opportunity to introduce their products to prospective buyers at a Buyer Meets Supplier session, which will be held on the first day of the show.

Mark Walsh, Exhibition Director of City Break, said `At present there is no travel trade exhibition dedicated to the city break sector - and it is one which is growing rapidly. In the last five years, travel habits have consistently changed with more people preferring to take regular breaks of 2-5 days instead of the traditional long summer vacation. During the first eight months of 2004, European short breaks of 1-3 nights increased by 24% while holidays of 4 nights or more duration increased by only 1% over the same period. Most of this growth in short break travel has been to cities.

Reed Travel Exhibitions recognised a potential niche in the exhibition calendar for a business focused event dedicated to this sector. We carried out initial research to a sample of our current exhibitors and buyers, which proved very positive. We have continued our research for the last year and believe we now have a very strong business proposition to all those involved in the European city break sector.

We are also delighted to be working so closely with European Cities Tourism which is the leading professional tourism network for European cities and has over 95 major cities from 30 countries as members.

Claes Bjerkne, President of European Cities Tourism, added, City break travel is the fastest growing segment in leisure tourism today and we believe the market is ready for an event dedicated to this important sector. We are delighted to be working with Reed Travel Exhibitions who are professional, well-respected and experienced in organising travel trade events.

City Break 2006 will take place prior to ECT`s annual summer conference and, like the conference, will move to a different member city each year. The organisers will shortly announce the city destination which will host the first edition of City Break together with the ECT Conference in June 2006.