Group Buyer Forum. Industry makes a date with the Travel Trade.
5/2/2019
Group Bookings Event in Surrey.
Its business as usual for group travel specialist
company Steve Reed Tourism Ltd from Hampshire.
This week marked their latest and most successful Group Buyer Forum event in what is
SRT’s 20th consecutive year of putting buyers together with sellers.
Top attraction in Surrey Painshill Park was the venue
for this set piece activity best described as ‘speed dating for groups’.
A truly national venture, the Forum reflected much of
what is excellent in the UK group travel field. The numerous exhibitors read
like a who’s who of tourism. Names such as Bletchley Park; Warner Hotels; the
National Garden Scheme; Corus and Laura Ashley Hotels; Daish’s Holidays;
Ticketmaster Groups and Waddesdon Manor rubbed shoulders with the likes of
Westminster Abbey; AGTO; Hever Castle; Denbies Wine Estate; Torquay Leisure
Hotels and the Royal Horticultural Society.
French Brother’s Boat Trips of Windsor; The Rugby
Town; Ena Mill Retail of Manchester; Visit Guildford; Classic Lodges Hotels; Travel
World Association; City Cruises and Brooklands Museum were just a few of the
attractions, hotels and tourism businesses represented at the Group Buyer
Forum.
The event was purely about group bookings.
To accomplish this Steve Reed Tourism invited coach
and tour operators; wholesalers; GTOS and inbound tour operators to the event.
They met the exhibitors face to face for a series of ten minute meetings. The Grovefield House Hotel near Windsor
hosted some of the buyers with dinner and a night’s accommodation. French
Brothers of Windsor treated the overnight attendees to a special River Thames
Cruise.
‘We’ve developed the way we arrange our events over
the last few years and as a result we think we’re giving the tourism industry
even more value for money,’ says Steve Reed MD of Steve Reed Tourism Ltd.
‘Our events are not just about numbers. Instead, we simplify
them and concentrate on trying to make sure that each of the tour planners we
invite are bone fide and active in the industry. So we’re focusing on quality more and more nowadays. That’s
not easy to do of course but we’re definitely getting there!’
The
next Group Buyer Forum takes place on Monday 14th
October from 10.30
– 14.00 at the Lowry in Salford Quays, Manchester.
The Farringdon Lodge Hotel at Leyland in Lancashire will be looking after some
of the buyers the night before and City Centre Cruises of Manchester will be
hosting a cruise at 14.00 from the Lowry on the 14th October
immediately after the Group Buyer Forum.
Any tourism businesses interested in exhibiting at the
Lowry or tour planners wishing to attend the event should email steve@stevereedtourism.co.uk
Tel: [01420] 560288.
Ends.