The Best of Britain & Ireland Travel Trade Forum Steering Group recently to consider the results from the recent exhibitor and visitor surveys in terms of the strategic direction that BoBI 2011 should take following the event this March at Olympia.

The Steering Group - comprising over 40 representatives from various stakeholders such as national and regional tourist boards with their partners, hoteliers and wholesalers, attractions, trade associations and travel trade media – was initiated when BoB Events took over the running of the domestic travel trade show in March 2008.  The Steering Group was set up with the objective to give the industry ownership of this flagship event and has proved to be an invaluable sounding board for BoBI’s overall direction.

Whilst the post-show BoBI 2010 press release announced greater numbers for the trade days and an enhanced quality of visitors following on from the inaugural launch at ExCeL in 2009, it also highlighted the need to review the event format and venue through an in-depth consultation with the industry. This de-brief Steering Group session was the culmination of that process and featured a very constructive, positive debate.

The trade visitor analysis for BoBI 2011 had shown a marked improvement in key qualitative statistics with 90% of the audience rating this year’s event ‘good to excellent’ compared to the previous years plus three-quarters rating the overall reputation of the event as being ‘good to excellent’.