The French tourism exhibition Top Resa which organised in Deauville, 27-27 September 2003, predicts a growth…
The French tourism exhibition Top Resa which organised in Deauville, 27-27 September 2003, predicts a growth in both visitor and exhibitor numbers, in spite of the weather problems now being confronted by France and Europe in general.
`Top Resa is celebrating this year its 25th birthday and has been generating – especially during these last 5 years- a very important growth through direct marketing actions, targeting both visitors and exhibitors`, mentions Brigitte Chanial Event Manager of Top Resa.
In order European travel fairs to maintain and increase their market share, Mrs Chanial recommends, that `they should focus more on face to face meetings on the various events as well as to develop a very strong direct marketing. The development of a show depends on a regular communication with the professionals.`
This difficult period for the tourism sector is more than ever the right time to attend exhibitions; meet, communicate sector partners and strengthen the bonds in the business has become very important. Top Resa enjoyed an increase of 36% within 5 years welcoming 13,586 visitors in 2002. Very important is the fact that there is an increase of 15% in managers and agency managers since 2001, a trend that will continue. `Exhibitors and visitors are more and more demanding, expecting a real return on investment for their stand or visit. Our commitment is therefore to give them 100% efficiency`, states Mrs Chanial.
Another important issue is the increase in visit duration, which reaches 1.4 days on average, with 15 contacts per visitor during the show. The origin of the visitors is real balanced between Paris – Ile de France (52%) and the Non-Paris region (48%). Furthermore, Black Africa, Central and South America, Eastern Europe and Inbound French Market are some of the destinations with a strong development during the past year.
Concerning the inbound and outbound French tourism Mrs Chanial believes that `despite the security, and health problems, the number of travelers from France is still increasing. However, 2003 will remain as a year impacted by a drop of US visitors in France`.
Is the Internet a threat to all types of tourism exhibitions? Mrs Chanial was very straightforward `Not at all. Internet is just an additional distribution tool and nothing will ever replace a face to face meeting`.
Top Resa uses state-of-art equipment with interactive displays throughout the fair in order to follow and even to anticipate the movements of the market, as well as the needs of professionals. `It is very important to make exhibitions more effective`, she said. `Also, it is one of our main goals to help exhibitors optimize their participation to the fair and we work on it day after day. Through this work, we enjoy excellent satisfaction rates both from visitors and exhibitors.
Concluding Mrs Chanial highlighted the basic aim of Top Resa, `to be the biggest meeting point of the year for Tourism professionals, to satisfy their needs and anticipate future trends in order to launch the next session in an optimum way`.
Top Resa is a member of the European Travel & Tourism Fairs Association (ETTFA).
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