REED TRAVEL EXHIBITIONS AND ETOA JOIN FORCES ON CITY BREAK 2009
Reed Travel Exhibitions, the world’s leading events organiser, and the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA), whose 400 members include the leading inbound European tour operators, today announced a partnership to build the profile and success of City Break, the specialist travel trade event dedicated to the growth of the city break market.
The partnership signals an enhancement of the City Break product, with ETOA being invited to manage and operate the event because of its access to buyers and its proven track record in running travel trade workshops using an appointment-based system. Reed Travel Exhibitions will continue to own and license the event.
Mark Walsh, Reed Travel Exhibitions’ Group Exhibition Director said, “We see this partnership as an excellent opportunity for City Break to build on its success of previous years. With Reed Exhibition’s excellent reputation within the events industry and ETOA’s fantastic European buyer membership and experience in running workshops, City Break has an extremely promising future ahead of it.”
Tom Jenkins, Executive Director for ETOA, commented, “ETOA is delighted to join forces with Reed Travel Exhibitions and we are looking forward to building on the existing event and making City Break the most important event of the year for European city break specialists.”
The show, which is in its fourth year, will take place from 15th – 16th June 2009 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Over 80 European cities will be represented with exhibitors including city tourist boards, accommodation providers, transport organisations, inbound tour operators, DMCs, city attractions and entertainment providers. Previous host destinations have been Helsinki, Athens and Belgrade.
Leif Nilsson, CEO Göteborg & Co, added, “This exclusive cooperation enables us to welcome the very best European tour operators to Gothenburg, West Sweden, allowing them to meet and do business here. City Break Expo also offers a fantastic opportunity to showcase Scandinavia as a favourite choice for the city break traveller, with good value for money at a favourable exchange rate.”
City Break 2009 is a platform allowing key city break suppliers in Europe to meet with senior purchasing managers from leading tour operators and online agents for pre-scheduled appointments.
Buyers who have previously attended City Break represent some of the leading tour operators including Airmiles, Expedia, Gullivers Travel Associates, Jacob Online, Kuoni and Thomas Cook.
Frank Magee, CEO, Dublin Tourism and President, European Cities Marketing, concluded: “Working together with ETOA is a great opportunity to put in direct contact the European cities and high quality tour operators. I believe that such a development will be a real step forward in the history of City Break.”
Hosted buyers are invited to register on-line. For further information on City Break Expo go to www.citybreakexpo.com
For press information contact:
Anna Streatfeild on +44 (0) 20 7367 0926 or email:
Daisy Sells on +44 (0) 20 7367 0921 or email daisysells@hillsbalfoursynergy.com
Notes for editors:
Reed Travel Exhibitions:
Reed Exhibitions is the world’s leading events organiser, with over 470 events in 37 countries. In 2008 Reed brought together over seven million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and organised by 38 fully staffed offices.
Reed organises a wide range of events, including exhibitions, conferences, congresses and meetings. Its portfolio of over 470 events serves 44 industry sectors, including:
Aerospace & aviation, automobiles, broadcasting, building & construction, electronics, energy, oil & gas, engineering, manufacturing, environment, food service & hospitality, gifts, healthcare, interior design, IT & telecoms, jewellery, life science & pharmaceuticals, machinery, medical education, printing & graphics, property & real estate, security & safety, sports & recreation, travel.
Working closely with professional bodies, trade associations and government departments Reed ensures that each and every event is targeted and relevant to industry needs. As a result, many Reed events are market leaders in their field.
Reed Exhibitions is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a FTSE-100 company and world-leading publisher and information provider. In 2007, Reed Elsevier made an adjusted profit before taxation of £998 million on turnover of £4,584 million.
European Tour Operators Association:
Since its foundation in 1989, ETOA has grown exponentially to include over 400 member organisations, of which more than a hundred are Tour Operators. Collectively, ETOA represents over €7 billion spending on accommodation and travel services annually.
ETOA provides representation at European government level for companies involved in bringing tourists to Europe. The Association promotes greater awareness of the benefits
provided by the group travel industry in Europe – particularly increased income and employment. ETOA also influences European tourism policy and legislation and runs a number of industry events throughout the year, including conferences, seminars and networking events.
Areas of specific activity include:
· Promoting Europe as a tourism destination
· Establishing commercial opportunities between buyers and sellers
· Establishing codes of conduct and guidelines for its members
· Working with other travel & tourism associations to raise the industry’s profile
European Cities Marketing:
ECM (European Cities Marketing) is the leading European association of City Tourism Offices and Convention Bureaus. Its network comprises 134 members spread over 32 countries. Its aim is to strengthen city tourism by
• providing sales and marketing possibilities
• communicating information
• sharing knowledge
• educating and
• working together on an operational level.
In 2006, ECM, in cooperation with Reed Travel Exhibitions, organized the very first City Break in Helsinki. During the following years, the City Break exhibition together with the ECM annual conference was hosted by the cities of Athens and Belgrade.
For more information, please contact European Cities Marketing Head Office