VisitBritain will be further extending the breadth of its trade offering at its Best of Britain & Ireland Travel Trade Forum 2009 by sponsoring the first Britain and Ireland Marketplace (BIM) workshop. The BIM workshop is a product of a new partnership between UKinbound and ETOA (European Tour Operators Association) and will take place on Wednesday 25 March at the prestigious central London location of Banqueting House, Whitehall.

The workshop will be attended by over 100 travel industry buyers, tour operators and online intermediaries, and 200 exhibiting sellers, offering trade exhibitors an additional outlet to promote their tourism products and services. Linking the BIM workshop with Best of Britain & Ireland 2009 will ensure that the both events are firmly placed on the trade calendar, and attract interest from senior decision-makers within the industry. Exhibitors will benefit from access to a wider European market, and raise the exposure of UK domestic tourism to international operators.

Exhibitors at the Best of Britain & Ireland event will be eligible for preferential rates at the workshop and will have pre-set appointments of 12 minutes to interact with each buyer. The BIM workshop will act as an exciting kick-off to the Best of Britain & Ireland event and coincides with British Tourism Week. It is expected to increase the footfall to Best of Britain & Ireland Travel Trade Forum (the trade element of Best of Britain & Ireland), which takes place on the 26-27 March at ExCel, by providing a significant networking opportunity in a difficult business climate.

Tom Wright, VisitBritain Chief Executive, says: "March is a key time for British tourism businesses as many of them prepare for another holiday season. They are certain to see the value of more than 30 meetings in a single day with senior decision-makers who have real purchasing power, coupled with the chance to meet others who will stay on to experience the Best of Britain and Ireland on show. Given an unpredictable economic climate, the Britain and Ireland Marketplace - alongside Best of Britain & Ireland - is a real opportunity to get ahead of competitors in the UK and abroad."

This is the first time that UKinbound and ETOA have joined forces to create an exciting networking event for its members and the wider industry. UKinbound is the organisation responsible for providing information about the British tourism industry for tour operators and tourism suppliers to Britain whilst ETOA offers European level representation for the interests of inbound and intra-European tour operators, wholesalers and European suppliers.

Rob Mackenzie, Managing Director, Best of Britain & Ireland comments: �We are very pleased to have the close involvement of ETOA and UKinbound with the Best of Britain & Ireland Travel Trade Forum. Having a workshop containing all the leading buyers gathered together on the day before the opening of Best of Britain & Ireland 2009 will be a perfect curtain-raiser for the show. All workshop buyers will have been automatically pre-registered as trade delegates for Best of Britain & Ireland, which opens the following morning and where many of the business contacts initiated at the workshop will be further developed. Our involvement in the UKinbound/ETOA workshop will provide our exhibitors with an additional channel through which to promote their products and it amplifies the Best of Britain & Ireland offering.�

Tom Jenkins, ETOA, comments: �This is a time of real stress and consequent change in the travel market. At such times it is vital that suppliers and distributors meet. The challenge for any association is to create fresh contacts. One way of doing this is to join forces with other associations. This is the first joint initiative between UKinbound and ETOA and it is great to be doing it with the support of Best of Britain & Ireland and VisitBritain. The workshop will introduce businesses that have not worked together before, generating new products that meet these changing conditions.�

Mary Rance Chief Executive UKinbound, comments: �UKinbound is delighted to be joining forces with ETOA for the Britain and Ireland Marketplace Workshop (BIM), the first collaborative business to business workshop to be run by UKinbound and ETOA. It represents a unique business and networking platform with a critical mass of the travel trade in town for Best of Britain & Ireland 2009 and will be positioned as a central event in British Tourism Week.�

-Ends-

Notes to Editors:

About the Best of Britain & Ireland and Travel Trade Forum The Best of Britain & Ireland (28 and 29 March) is preceded by the Best of Britain & Ireland Travel Trade Forum, which will be open to the travel trade from 26 � 27 March 2009 at ExCeL London. Registration for genuine travel trade is Free of Charge (registration from 1 December via www.britainandirelandevent.co.uk)

The Best of Britain & Ireland consumer days are 28 � 29 March 2009. Adult tickets start at just �10, Tickets will be on sale from 1 December. For more information about the Show visit www.britainandirelandevent.co.uk.

Press are invited to visit the show on the trade days (26-27 March). Accredited press will be able to register free of charge from 1 December via www.britainandirelandevent.co.uk.

The Show is organised by Best of Britain Events Ltd (BoBI Events) under licence from VisitBritain.

About Best of Britain Events Ltd Best of Britain Events Ltd is an independent professional exhibition and event organiser, headed by Single Market Events managing director Tim Etchells and London EventCo managing director Rob Mackenzie.

About VisitBritain VisitBritain is responsible for promoting Britain as a world class tourist destination and for developing England�s visitor economy. It has representatives in 36 countries around the world and, in the last three years, has expanded into China, throughout Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, and increased its presence in India with representatives in Bangalore and Mumbai.

Provisional figures for 2007 indicate there were 32.8 million visits to Britain, +0.2% up on 2006. They spent �16.0 billion in the UK: a -0.3% decrease on 2006.

VisitBritain�s international website, www.visitbritain.com, was awarded World�s Leading Tourism Authority Internet Site for the fourth year in a row at the 2007 World Travel Awards by more than 200,000 travel and tourism professionals. With information provided in 26 different languages, every year over 12 million visits are made by international consumers to the 46 websites that make up visitbritain.com.

About UKinbound UKinbound was set up in 1977 and is the only trade association that represents the UK�s export tourism businesses. Inbound tourism is the UK�s third largest export industry generating over �18 billion in export earning from 32 million international visitors to the UK in 2007 (ONS International passenger survey)

For more information visit www.ukinbound.org

About ETOA

For more information about ETOA visit www.etoa.org

Media requiring further information should contact Liz Warburton or Chloe Handy at Fleishman-Hillard: 0207 306 9000 elizabeth.warburton@fleishmaneurope.com / chloe.handy@fleishmaneurope.com

Media wishing to register for attendance to the show should email bobi@fleishmaneurope.com.