The Role of International Travel Trade
The international travel trade play a vital role in helping to generate bookings and grow international visitor numbers.
A collective term, travel trade can be any one of a number of intermediaries including tour operators, travel agents, wholesalers, OTA’s, coach and group operators and ground handling agencies. The travel trade can help you promote your product or experience in the global marketplace and attract new business from overseas.
Tourism Northern Ireland work closely with Tourism Ireland, who are directly responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas. Nurturing and developing relationships with the international travel trade is crucial to ensure they have a well-developed product knowledge of what our destination can offer their clients and an awareness of the type of products and experiences that are available here.
Our core markets are; NI, ROI, GB, France, Germany, North America, Australia and China so we focus on working with operators whose clientele are based in these markets. Market profile information on the main international markets is available from Tourism Ireland.
In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, many of the face-to-face events, activities and workstreams have been greatly impacted.
A virtual programme of activity has been developed, which will still enable and facilitate the NI industry to engage with the international travel trade.
Keeping these lines of communication and relationships open will be essential to ensure NI is well placed to continue to build and attract international tourists once the pandemic has eased and restrictions relaxed.