15 Sep 2014
The 7th annual business-to-business event set to be largest and most innovative to date
September 15, 2014, Las Vegas – Today marks the opening day of VisitBritain's largest ever flagship business-to-business event, Destination Britain North America (DBNA). Attracting British tourism businesses and North American buyers to the US for the last six years, the seventh annual event is hosting over 183 buyers, suppliers and travel trade media from 170 tourism companies; facilitating over 4,500 meetings over the three day event. This is a 20% increase over last year, including a welcome rise in West Coast business and a significant number of first-time attendees.
North America remains a key market for tourism to Britain, with the US business alone worth an astounding £1 billion more than any other region in the world. Last year 2.8 million Americans visited Britain and spent 4.5% more than the previous year. The picture looks equally strong for Canada: Britain welcomed nearly ¾ of a million Canadians, up nearly 6% on the year before.
Showcasing the great size and scale of the North American business opportunity will form the main focus of this year's event. By sharing the latest insights and tips to future-proof their businesses, VisitBritain aims to inject a renewed sense of excitement about the North American market and re-energize attendees about their Britain business.
“While focusing on high growth markets is undoubtedly important, it is crucial not to neglect your lifeblood,” says VisitBritain Chairman, Christopher Rodrigues. He adds: “Even in mature markets that organizations feel they understand well, there is a constant need to invest time, money and energy into innovation – or you can be sure someone else will.”
In these challenging financial times, outspending the competition is not an option for government agency, VisitBritain. However, VisitBritain Vice President North America, Karen Clarkson, feels strongly that innovation and out-smarting the competition will be the key to growing the value of the North American business to Britain in the coming years.
“There is still so much opportunity for growth in North America,” says Clarkson. “Great Britain enjoys a solid reputation in both Canada and the USA and VisitBritain is ruthlessly focusing on how to put the traveller at the heart of every decision. The global tourism landscape is extremely competitive and the pace of change is astonishing – but over the next few days, we aim to provide DBNA attendees with a forum for forging new business relationships and the latest insights for making solid business decisions to collectively increase their business to Britain.”
Kicking off the three-day program was a dynamic, interactive, event that saw DBNA buyers and suppliers team up as culinary students under the tutelage of Dai Chef, resident chef at the world renowned Bodnant Welsh Food Centre in the Conwy Valley, Wales, to create specialty Welsh dishes. The exercise was strategically chosen to showcase the importance of experiential and wellness-based travel for North American travelers who rank 'enjoying local food and drink' and being healthy/active as two important destination criteria..
VisitBritain also curated three highly specialized seminars: No Standing Still: Innovating to Attract New Customers; The Pace of Change: Social Media's Evolving Influence in Business; and Thinking like a Maverick: Targeting North Americans with a Millennial Mindset. Attendees will hear from top experts in each industry including CEO and Founder of Skift.com, Rafat Ali; Entrepreneur, Author and Social Media Authority, Peter Shankman; VisitBritain's Karen Clarkson and Vice President of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Colleen Birch.
Major sponsors of DBNA included Visit Wales, Visit Scotland, Air Canada, Marketing Birmingham, Discover Travel & Tours, Historic Royal Palaces and Made.
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For more information:
Dana Polonsky
PR & Communications Executive, USA
VisitBritain
Dana.Polonsky@visitbritain.org
For more press information about travel to Britain: media.visitbritain.com
For access to VisitBritain's free photo library for media:www.visitbritainimages.com
Twitter (Corporate): @VisitBritainBiz | Twitter (Consumer):@VisitBritain
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About VisitBritain
· VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, is responsible for inspiring the world to explore Britain and for developing the UK's visitor economy.
· Americans made 2.8 million visits to Britain in 2013 and spent $4.3 billion USD
· The US remains in the top spot in terms of market value for inbound tourism and is one of the top three most important markets in terms of visitor numbers.
· Visitors traveling to Britain can find out more information fromvisitbritain.us plus purchase money and time saving local transport, sightseeing, attraction, theatre and tour tickets from visitbritainshop.us
· Follow us on Twitter @VisitBritain, Pinterest (VisitBritain) and Facebook: LoveGreatBritain
