How trade shows attract GTOs
The three major annual group travel trade shows provide the platform for group travel organisers and industry suppliers to get together, offering ideas and inspiration for future trips and holidays. Wendy Hartley-Scarff, chief executive of the Association for Group Travel
Organisers (AGTO) takes a look at the changes that are taking place to ensure these important events remain key dates in a group travel organiser’s diary?
This year the British Tourism & Travel Show (BTTS) changed from being a two-day show to being a single day. The move came in response to exhibitors’ ever tightening show budgets and the increasing costs of organising such events.
BTTS is often regarded as the doyen of group travel shows. The name has changed of course; think back to the British Travel Trade Fair at the NEC in the 1990s, then Best of Britain and Ireland (BoBI) at Olympia in central London before settling back at the NEC.
This year, a look through the show catalogue revealed some 220 different exhibitors. A new initiative, ‘Tourism Tycoon’, added something new, in the form of a ‘passport’ that offered prizes for visitors who engaged with exhibitors and other activities.
Another event trying something new is Excursions, billed as the ‘UK’s longest running group travel show’, and now in its 52nd year. This year, the format changed with the introduction of ‘Excursions on the Road’ and the start of the event moving to a different venue each year.
This year brought around 50 exhibitors and a more relaxed table-top format, moving away from the rigidity of a traditional shell-scheme design. It worked, with visitors and exhibitors saying the new format worked well.
The other main group travel exhibition, the Group Leisure & Travel Show, which has found a home at Arena MK in Milton Keynes, this year taking place on 8 October, also offers around 200 exhibitors. The show stands alone in having a line-up of celebrity speakers, giving
visitors a break from walking the aisles.
AGTO attends all these shows, highlighting the benefits of membership and taking the opportunity to engage with visitors and industry suppliers. But we’re also innovating ourselves. At the end of February we held our second ‘AGTO Showcase’. This weekend event, which used to be an annual date in the group travel calendar prior to the pandemic, returned in 2025 and was held at the Marsham Court Hotel in Bournemouth. This year, the venue was the Holiday Inn Leicester, with around 100 GTOs and suppliers getting together
for a programme of familiarisation trips and entertainment. This mix of business and socialising includes the Showcase Exhibition, a table-top format that gives exhibitors and GTOs the opportunity to chat away from the time constraints of the traditional group travel
shows. The event proved successful and plans are in place for ‘AGTO Showcase 2027’.
Our members told us they welcome this alternative to the regular group travel trade shows, offering another way to discover the new ideas and inspiration they need for their trips and holidays.