ETOA (The European Tourism Association) will host its first major in person event at The Global European Marketplace at the Intercontinental O2 on Friday 29 October 2021 with a wide range of international buyers and European suppliers.
Over 550 delegates, including nearly 200 buyers from B2B and wholesale operators are already registered to attend.
The live event will be followed by a partner online event Relaunch ’22 on 30 November 2021, where delegates from around the world, including those in the Americas and Asia will each access 44 appointments throughout the day.
Tom Jenkins, CEO of ETOA said: “The volume of interest in these events is an indication of the determination of the industry to recover.
“Having live events are crucial in this industry. We deal in real experiences: nothing can replace the contacts and chance meetings that occur at our workshops. But we have learned that our online platform allows meetings with people from further flung destinations, which have generated meetings that would otherwise never take place and brings people together in an extremely effective way.
At Relaunch ‘22 we will have hundreds of buyers from throughout the world joining to finalise 2022 and plan 2023.”
To that end, ETOA has signed an agreement with FEMATUR (Mexican Federation of Tourist Associations) to enable the Mexican outbound industry to take part in Relaunch ‘22. They will join ETOA’s established array of partners based as far apart as Shanghai and Seattle.
Tom Jenkins continued: “The last 18 months has meant hibernation for anyone selling Europe in the global marketplace. August and September have seen the return of some business from the United States, mainly in Italy, France and Spain. The volumes were not vast: ETOA members report that numbers in these areas were roughly 30% of what they were moving in 2019. There are also some moribund destinations, notably the UK, which has seen no significant arrivals. But the enthusiasm for our networking events prove that the impulse to travel is there.
“Our members are clear on what is surpressing arrivals: it is not fear, but the uncertainty caused by the differing restrictions erected by governments across Europe. The moment these are cleared, or at least co-ordinated, then business will come.
Underpinning this are the substantial bookings ETOA members have carried over from 2020 and 2021.
“The recovery is coming. The scale and how it will manifest itself will be the discussion point of Recovery ’22.”
