VisitAberdeenshire will be flying the tourism flag for the north east of Scotland as it takes its place alongside destinations such as The Cotswolds, Wales, Glasgow, Belfast, Edinburgh, Jersey and London at a flagship VisitBritain event.
VisitAberdeenshire will be present at VisitBritain’s ExploreGB, which will be held on 2 and 3 March in Brighton. The event features an intense, two-day agenda of up to 54 pre-scheduled appointments with 300 international buyers from 40 different international markets. These buyers, who are all pre-qualified, are travel trade and tour operators who use the event to look for new destinations, events and attractions for their global clients. VisitAberdeenshire will attend ExploreGB with 350 other UK and Irish accommodation providers, attractions, tour operators and transport companies as well as other destination management organisations and tourist boards.
VisitAberdeenshire’s confirmed diary of appointments features a high number of Chinese buyers as well as with those from Germany and Norway. China has been identified by the destination management organisation for the north east as a key target for attracting new visitors.
Jenni Fraser, business development director at VisitAberdeenshire says, “VisitAberdeenshire recognises the importance of the Chinese market and in 2015 we launched a Chinese version of our website in a bid to attract a share of the $128 billion China spends every year on overseas leisure and business tourism. We’re actively targeting this highly lucrative market and events like ExploreGB allow us to have face to face appointments with the right people to bring more Chinese visitors to the north east. The Chinese are the biggest overseas spenders in the world, spending, on average, 50% more than Americans when they are on holiday. With forecasts suggesting 500 million Chinese people will travel overseas in the next 15 years, we believe that it is critical to promote our area as a leisure and business destination to this market.”
The focus for the VisitAberdeenshire team will not be on China alone, as the event will provide individual meetings with global buyers.
Jenni Fraser continues, “Flight connectivity through Aberdeen International Airport is excellent. We have flights to all the main hubs for global travel including Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and London. Getting to Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire from every corner of the globe is the easiest it has ever been. We know we have a wonderful leisure and business tourism product and that this is reflected in our branding ‘Beyond words, but not beyond reach’ and we will reach new buyers who will bring more visitors to our beautiful area.”
Further information about the area can be found at www.visitabdn.com