Online travel wholesaler, Excite Holidays, launched its business into the European market at World Travel Market in London last week.
The key members of the team travelled from the company’s Sydney and Bangkok offices to the exhibition which saw in excess of 50,000 visitors over four days.
It was a flying start for Excite Holidays as soon as the exhibition doors opened on Monday morning with travel agents, suppliers and other exhibitors drawn to our stand. In typical ‘Excite Holidays’ fashion we veered away from the tradition booth build and instead opted for a 2mx4m giant red heart made of over 9,000 individual travel images.
In other areas of the exhibition, tourism boards had made a huge effort to impress the crowds with traditional dancers, ceremonies, wine tasting, cooking demonstrations and celebrities.
On the second day of the exhibition we officially announced the appointment of our Head of Sales Europe, Adrian Marpole. Adrian has joined Excite Holidays to push forward to company’s growth in the UK and Europe. We’re thrilled that Adrian has joined the team and he immediately made an impact by signing up some key agency groups.
Celebrating another successful day at the show, the Excite team headed out to Jamie Oliver’s London restaurant, Barbecoa.
Day three saw a South African animal sanctuary and a Brazilian adventure resort specialising in accessible tourism announced Joint Overall Winners at the World Responsible Tourism Awards 2014 in WTM in London, sponsored by the Sultanate of Oman Ministry of Tourism. Meanwhile, the Excite team had another busy day meeting with clients and forging new relationships. The stand in the Global Village area of the exhibition was continually busy with interested parties from all over the globe.
“We are taking that same philosophy that won the hearts of Australian and New Zealand travel agents and duplicating that in the UK market. We do the right things for our clients. We have fought very hard in Australia to earn the trust of agents and we’ll be doing exactly that in the UK and throughout Europe.”
“We couldn’t have asked for a better reception at WTM,” says Excite Holidays CEO, George Papaioannou. “The show has been incredibly successful for us. We’ve had the pleasure to form new partnerships as well as build on existing relationships with our customers and suppliers”
George Papaioannou, CEO, Excite Holidays
“We’re delighted to have Adrian Marpole on board as our Head of Sales Europe and are feeling extremely positive about what the future holds for Excite Holidays as we expand our business across the globe.”