Brand USA Newsletter - September 2017

Brand USA – through its ongoing presence at major travel-trade expositions around the globe – tapped into three international markets during the past quarter as it showed why the United States continues to be a premier travel destination for global travelers. Additionally, Brand USA invested its efforts into IPW, a yearly marketplace held in the United States that traditionally has been a major driver for inbound international tourism.

Brand USA’s industry partners – representing U.S. destinations, attractions, lodging and other tourism-related services and products – leveraged their marketing objectives by joining Brand USA at each event. Without the Brand USA framework, Brand USA President and CEO Christopher Thompson said, many of these partners would not be able on their own to access these exhibitions and the markets they serve.

Collectively, Brand USA pavilions at these events present travel buyers with entertaining and overflowing sources of information tied to U.S. travel opportunities. The pavilions also promote a team-style approach to the branding of diverse organizations in the U.S. tourism sector.

Here are the recent 2017 expositions where Brand USA pavilions were present:

World Travel Market (WTM) Latin America, Sao Paulo, Brazil (April 3-6) – The 2017 fifth annual show had more than 600 exhibitors from 50 countries. Of the destinations that exhibited, 30 percent were from Brazil, another 30 percent were from Latin America (outside of Brazil), and the remaining 40 percent represented worldwide locations beyond Latin America.

The 2016 edition generated $370 million in new business between attending buyers and exhibitors. This year, as Brazil is showing signs of economic recovery, WTM Latin American officials said the event’s physical exhibition space expanded 20 percent over last year.

Braztoa, the Brazilian Tour Operators Association, regularly hosts its yearly business meetings at WTM Latin America.

WTM Latin America is one of Reed Travel Exhibitions’ WTM events. Other such events include WTM London, WTM Africa, Arabian Travel Market, WTM Connect Asia, and International Golf Travel Market.

 

Arabian Travel Market (ATM), Dubai, United Arab Emirates (April 24-27) – More than 40,000 travel professionals, government representatives and members of the press come to Dubai yearly for this well-established event, produced by Reed Travel Exhibitions. It has been running for the past 24 years and typically generates more than $2.5 billion in travel business.

The Brand USA pavilion was one of 150 country exhibitors. Moreover, the 41 U.S. organizations that were part of the Brand USA exhibition were among the 2,600 companies and organizations that populated a dozen halls at Dubai World Trade Centre – making the 2017 show the largest in history. 

“ATM 2017 has been phenomenal for us, particularly now that we have our direct flight from Dubai to Fort Lauderdale with Emirates,” said Fernando Harb, vice president, Tourism Sales at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.

As a first-time exhibitor, he added: “ATM has been a tremendous platform for us to meet with who are not familiar with the destination or don’t have enough information in order to sell us. We look forward to coming back year after year.”

 

IMEX, Frankfurt, Germany (May 16-18) – This annual exhibition is an oasis for planners who arrange international travel for incentive programs, meetings and events. The show drew 3,500 exhibitors and 9,000 visitors, including 4,000 hosted buyers. About a third of the buyers who came to Frankfurt in 2017 were from Germany (13.5 percent), the United States (11 percent) and the UK (8 percent).

Germany is the second-largest, outbound market for meetings travel. The United States is the number-one market.

Brand USA partners who participated in the Brand USA pavilion at Frankfurt included Visit Utah, American Guest, Destination Event Services, Boston Convention Marketing Center, Event Travel Solutions, and Island Partners Hawaii.

A second annual show in this sector of global travel, IMEX America, runs in October at Las Vegas.

IPW, Washington, DC (June 3-7) – Commonly considered to be the largest generator of travel to the United States, allowed more than 1,000 U.S. travel organizations – representing every region and segment of the U.S. tourism industry – to meet with 1,300 international and domestic travel buyers from 70-plus countries through pre-scheduled personal appointments over a three-day span.

The result is $4.7 billion in future U.S. travel sales, which brings 8.8 million international visitors to the United States.

The U.S. Travel Association, a prominent national advocate (based in Washington, D.C.) for the overall U.S. travel industry, operates IPW as one of its signature events. Brand USA, for the sixth year in a row, worked with U.S. Travel as the premier sponsor of IPW.

Next year, the event will be held in Denver. IPW was formerly called International Pow Wow.

Brand USA’s pavilion at this year’s IPW occupied 4,000 square feet, 80 feet wide and 50 feet in depth. It had a video wall, 55 feet wide and 11 feet high, that displayed snippets of Brand USA promotional campaigns. A 70-inch touchscreen allowed visitors to become familiar with Brand USA ‘s website.

The pavilion had a meeting space for about people and another ten in a private conference area a “grab and go” area had marketing collateral and give-ways such as T-shirts, selfie sticks, smartphone wallets, luggage tags, and promotional postcards.