Luxury travel fairs enable agents to showcase the breadth of their offering, and give clients the chance to hear from top suppliers first-hand. Having paused during the pandemic, many agents are now becoming bolder with their events, ensuring they truly reflect the business.
TravelTime World innovation director Ashley Quint urges fellow agents to “shake up the format” when planning a travel fair. In the past, the agency has taken the concept of a fair – inviting clients to meet with suppliers at a venue, and asking suppliers for sponsorship – and hosted it at a local market and in an open air concert. “It can help if you piggyback on something else that’s happening,” he advises. “Think about how you can expand the format to make it ‘you’ and put your business values and personality into it. Don’t think vanilla.”
TravelTime World hosted its first post-pandemic fair in July 2022 at a local wine bar, attended by eight partners and 75 clients. “We encouraged people to bring a friend and purposefully invited some clients who had already travelled [since the pandemic] and some who hadn’t, as people then talk to each other,” Quint explains.
The evening was introduced by Advantage chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said, with talks from suppliers including Caribtours chief executive Paul Cleary. Rather than desks, suppliers had cocktail tables where guests could chat to them over canapes and fizz, and the event brought in £115,000 in sales within a fortnight.
Make it personal
Last November, Peakes Travel Elite held its first live, post-pandemic, luxury travel showcase. Having previously always held fairs in March, managing director Claire Moore instead chose late autumn, to help boost the team’s “slim” upcoming Q1 2023 departures.
Moore says the showcase reflected the agency’s personality far more than previous events. “We were a bit shy before, but now we’re more bold,” she explains. “Before, our events were more generic, in conference spaces without much personality. For this one we chose a decommissioned church in Shrewsbury, with beautiful stained-glass windows and pews. We served cafe-style drinks and local Shrewsbury biscuits and it felt really welcoming. We are what we are, and we’re not for everyone, and that’s a real positive.”
Planning started in June, and Moore employed an events team to help organise the fair, which was held on a Sunday when the store is normally closed. Guests were invited via social media promotion, adverts in local magazines and the store’s window, and emails to the agency’s existing database, with 120 booking and 105 attending. It hit Moore’s objectives, as all 13 suppliers received bookings, and she attributes an impressive increase in overall sales to the fair.
Target audience
In February 2022, Swords Travel luxury travel associate Carla Hutchings ran her first fair as an agent, having attended numerous ones in her previous roles as a sales manager for various operators. “The venue is key,” she explains. “It was crucial I chose a luxury hotel that would attract the right type of audience.”
Opting for Hampshire’s Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa, Hutchings set clear objectives, aiming to grow her local database in the south coast area. Alongside advertising to a local audience on Facebook, she worked with a leaflet distribution specialist to choose families and couples living in detached houses in specific postcode areas. “There was a cost involved, but it really worked,” she adds. Double-sided invitations featured a photo of Hutchings and details of a prize draw, with a QR code to register for a place.
After inviting 200 people, 100 came through the door to be greeted with a glass of champagne, before being introduced to suppliers. All 10 received at least two bookings within six months of the event, generating £75,000 of new business for Hutchings.
