Events
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The Costa del Sol Convention Bureau has carried out a promotional campaign in UK. It was a door-to-door campaign in which they visited big travel agencies in nine cities, namely, Coventry. Gloucester, Eastbourne, Farnham, Bath, Haywards Heath, Leamington Spa, Stroud, and Bradford on Avon.
The campaign was aimed at contacting opinion leaders and executives who can make decisions when it comes to choosing a destination for their clients’ business trips. Likewise, the Convention Bureau was interested in keeping in touch with old customers in the UK. The delegation included representatives of three Convention Bureau affiliates: Hotel Torrequebrada, Hotel Villa Padierna, and DMC Técnica Incentives.
The Convention Bureau’s challenge this year is to strengthen the destination’s image and publicise its virtues through intense and personalised efforts. The idea is to reach not only the leading incentive travel agencies but also new, emerging firms as well as loyal end customers, with the aim of keeping the flow of tourists stable and even rise the number of business travellers coming to the Costa del Sol.
Although the market is stagnant and affected by the euro situation, clients are optimistic and in search for new options for their own customers. Thus, although the number of incentive trips has dropped, the number of meeting trips has risen (mainly for conferences and product presentations).
In 2009, most British clients kept events at home, but now arrangements are being made to hold them in nearby destinations with competitive prices. This is, therefore, a good opportunity for the Costa del Sol.
Currently, the industries with the highest business volumes are food, the pharmaceutical, and finance. Most meeting trips are austere, with controlled budgets and no press.
The clients visited during the door-to-door campaign underscored the importance of new values and creativity of our travel destination, which many companies were beginning to leave behind in the belief that it was being over-exploited. All the agencies we made contacts with took notes during our presentation and said they would take the Costa del Sol into account for future quotes.
The most popular business travel destinations in Spain are Barcelona and Madrid. However, many companies are sending groups –or working on the budgets to send them– to the Costa del Sol.
The Convention Bureau’s visits consisted in one-hour training workshops on our travel destination –an effective format to keep experts abreast of the new developments and make new contacts. It must be borne in mind that, in all cases, we reached executives or high managerial agents.
On the whole, we could see that the situation is ripe to foster activity in the British MICE market –which, it must be remembered, is the no. 1 outbound market to the Costa del Sol. In sum, the campaign can be said to have had good results.
The Convention Bureau’s challenge this year is to strengthen the destination’s image and publicise its virtues through intense and personalised efforts. The idea is to reach not only the leading incentive travel agencies but also new, emerging firms as well as loyal end customers, with the aim of keeping the flow of tourists stable and even rise the number of business travellers coming to the Costa del Sol.
Although the market is stagnant and affected by the euro situation, clients are optimistic and in search for new options for their own customers. Thus, although the number of incentive trips has dropped, the number of meeting trips has risen (mainly for conferences and product presentations).
In 2009, most British clients kept events at home, but now arrangements are being made to hold them in nearby destinations with competitive prices. This is, therefore, a good opportunity for the Costa del Sol.
Currently, the industries with the highest business volumes are food, the pharmaceutical, and finance. Most meeting trips are austere, with controlled budgets and no press.
The clients visited during the door-to-door campaign underscored the importance of new values and creativity of our travel destination, which many companies were beginning to leave behind in the belief that it was being over-exploited. All the agencies we made contacts with took notes during our presentation and said they would take the Costa del Sol into account for future quotes.
The most popular business travel destinations in Spain are Barcelona and Madrid. However, many companies are sending groups –or working on the budgets to send them– to the Costa del Sol.
The Convention Bureau’s visits consisted in one-hour training workshops on our travel destination –an effective format to keep experts abreast of the new developments and make new contacts. It must be borne in mind that, in all cases, we reached executives or high managerial agents.
On the whole, we could see that the situation is ripe to foster activity in the British MICE market –which, it must be remembered, is the no. 1 outbound market to the Costa del Sol. In sum, the campaign can be said to have had good results.
Author: Patronato de Turismo de la Costa del Sol
(c) 2010 - Tourist Board of the Costa del Sol - info@costadelsol.travel