Travel Trade Ready is an exciting innovation as it supports both buyers and suppliers equally. As a membership organisation, we know that our buyer members are constantly looking to engage with new suppliers, but that it can be frustrating when there is a lack of clear understanding of what is required.
Ensuring that buyers are only engaging with trade ready suppliers on the Travel Trade Ready platform is going to make face to face meetings more beneficial for everyone; and providing immediate support for those suppliers that are yet ready can only be a good thing for our industry as a whole.
A huge thank you to Mike who delivered travel trade training to food and drink businesses in the Bristol area. He explained structures and complex relationships within the industry clearly enabling a good understanding from all of those who attended. This not only opened eyes to the possibility and potential of working with the industry, but debunked myths around commission and volume.
I would not hesitate to work with Mike again and would highly recommend him to businesses and destinations looking to develop their travel trade business.
Key to the success our International Marketing Partner Programme is regular contact with Tour Operators and Agents in our target markets. Having attended numerous events over recent years, meeting Product Contractors it was felt important to have the opportunity to meet directly with the Sales Teams. b2me Tourism Marketing has a wealth of Tour Operator knowledge and experience in both Group and Travel Trade Marketing with strong relationships, enabling us to get in front of the “right people”.
A recent Sales Mission to North America was well organised, with a good number of productive meetings and training sessions conducted in a relaxed professional experienced manner. b2me did all the hard work of pre-planning & organisation needed and helped us to produce concise training materials, well received by everyone.
Instant Expert is a great source of knowledge, ideas and innovation... challenging the way in which we present and deliver to our overseas partners.
Mike Newman at b2me Tourism Marketing was originally commissioned to run a trade engagement workshop for VisitAberdeenshire’s supplier partners across the attractions and accommodation sectors in advance of a UKinbound Discover Workshop for tour operators and DMCs. The success of this workshop led to our partners gaining not only confidence, but also immediate bookings from operators who were delighted at how ‘trade ready’ our suppliers were.
We followed this up by commissioning b2me to run a series of masterclasses for partners looking to really get to grips with how to position themselves for the cruise, group and high end individual international markets, and once again are delighted with the results. This was reflected in focussed approach by our stand partners at VisitScotland Expo 2019, who arrived ready to do business, and not simply to 'show-and-tell'.
We have worked with Mike for close to three years now in various ways with our Tourism students including a Mentoring Scheme, an Investigative Project and an Inspirational Talk. Mike brings to life both the complexity and possibilities of working within Tourism based on his years of experience in the sector and the b2me business model. Students easily connect with Mike’s persona as well and are motivated to ask questions that develop discussions around their own aspirations, post-study. We have now developed a strong relationship which helps us close the gap between academic theory and practice for our Tourism students - we appreciate your time Mike and will continue to collaborate with you; thank you.
I wanted to thank you for the time taken to support TSE's virtual Support Programme.
Mike came highly recommended to me from several cultural and tourism sources and is supporting new members of my team with bespoke training to re-energise and target Waddesdon's groups and travel trade activity. He carries his extensive knowledge of the market lightly and the team is learning quickly from his 'enabling approach', supporting us to build internal capability.