TAS Tips

This post is a first in a series of “Talking TAS” posts that will focus on how to best prepare in the weeks leading up to the Travel & Adventure Show.

Throughout the years, we have found many exhibitors (especially first time participants) who arrive at the show without a solid event plan. This shortfall in preparation can lead them to make expensive decisions that minimize any meaningful or measurable contribution to their sales and marketing objectives.

Here are some tips that we've accumulated over the past 11 years to make sure that you prepare to put yourself in a position to achieve your goals!

Understand What You’re Really Buying

Many exhibitors believe they are buying floor space, exposure, leads and eventually sales. Successful and experienced exhibitors have learned that they are actually buying “face to face contact” with a highly qualified and motivated travel buying audience. TAS gives you everything you need to reach your exhibiting goals, but it is up to you to make those goals a reality.

Welcome to Talking TAS!

Wow what a difference a few years make!

I think we have all witnessed a global economy settling in for at least modest growth.  At the Travel & Adventure Shows, we have seen significant growth over the past two years both in terms of attendance and Exhibitors.  Overall, we have seen upwards of 19% - 37% growth across all of our shows in year over year attendance. And more importantly, we have seen significant increases in the quality of attendees.

The result of all this is a larger community of global travel marketers relying on the Travel & Adventure Shows as a critical piece of their media mix.  We have seen many new destinations adding our events these past two years as well as more tour companies, travel suppliers, attractions and marketers.  We have also heard from many of you that more information on best practices is important, more exhibitor community/networking opportunities, and more tools to help you increase your consumer reach and show ROI is needed.  We hear you!

Over the past couple of months, the team here at the Travel & Adventure Show has worked hard to improve the Exhibitor Experience. We’ve fully embraced social media to showcase our exhibitors and their destinations. We’ve created a monthly newsletter that provides tips and important TAS news. We also created a 38 page “Exhibitor Activation Guide” highlighting all the important logistics that go into having a successful show. We have put those tools, among others, in place for our exhibitors to achieve the highest level of success.

That being said, I am proud to introduce our next and newest Exhibitor tool – the Travel & Adventure Show blog. “Talking TAS” is full of the information you need to ensure that your exhibiting goals are reached. This “Exhibitors Only” tool is full of all the information you’ll need for pre, during and post show TAS initiatives, as well as tips and expert input on what we’ve learned since we produced the first show back in 2003.

One of the goals of this blog is to create a Travel & Adventure Show community – a place where exhibitors can connect with exhibitors and where exhibitors can easily access the whole TAS Team. Our hope is that we can share your success stories with us on how you are utilizing our shows and how you are generating a significant ROI. We’ve curated some interesting, informative and entertaining content for Talking TAS and we hope you’ll feel the same.

As always, thank you for participating in our shows and making them America’s Favorite Travel Show.

Until next time,

 

John Golicz

CEO, Unicomm