GETTING READY FOR RECOVERY  – ITOA 2021 WORKSHOPS 

Northern Ireland Industry February  16 & 17

ROI Workshops March 3 & 4 & March 10 & 11

General Information:

We are delighted that ITOA’s annual workshops are happening this year on the virtual platform of Converve, thanks to the support of our colleagues in Tourism Northern Ireland and Failte Ireland.  We are delighted that our Irish product suppliers have signed up in the usual strong numbers to meet our members and get ready for the recovery of international travel.   Registration is now complete and suppliers are now receiving from Convereve their registration details to upload their business profiles and based on the timelines for each event to make their appointments.

These events offer a unique opportunity to meet and sell your product to all members of ITOA who can package and promote your business to over 4,000 global travel trade partners and customers.  While business is certainly not as normal, ITOA members have continued to work with their international partners to ensure that Ireland remains top of mind in their future plans and programmes, so that when the time is right we will be ready to welcome back our international visitors who spend more and stay longer holidaying in Ireland.

In 2019 ITOA members delivered:

• 700,500 overseas visitors to Ireland
• Who Spend €565 Million when holidaying or here on business
• A variety of business including , group tours, independent travelers, incentive & conferences
• Spend €12.5 million marketing and selling Ireland in overseas markets
• Visitors visited every region in Ireland and stayed longer than the national average length of stay – with group tour clients staying on average 8 nights and individual package holidays visitors staying 5.5 nights

Workshop Format
Obviously this year the process has been quite different to our usual live events, with shorter lead in and registration timelines needed to meet building the workshops virtually.  Registration is now complete and closed.  All of the workshops will allow 10 minute appointment this year, with 2 minute breaks between appoints and mid morning and afternoon and lunch breaks that will be happening in your own kitchens this year!  Once you are live on the Covereve system, all you need to know about working on the platform will be available to you there.  Many will be familiar with the system from last years Meet the Buyer and Meitheal workshops.  If this is your first time using Converve, do take time to go through the instructions and advise available on the system to guide you through how to load your profiles and make appointments. Pre-planning is essential in advance of participating.  Our members profiles will be available on the system and you can also review our member list in order to assist you to prioritise you appointment requests.

Making the most of these workshops is essential for ITOA members and suppliers.  So to assist you in being prepared here are some TOP TIPS:

1. Have your 2022 Group and FIT rates ready  – remember ITOA members business is booked far earlier than other channels
2. Flexibility will be key to winning back business and operating in a Covid environment.  Global competition will be stronger than every so we need to have the flexibility that consumers and international travel trade will require to enable date changes & booking transfers
3. Realistic T&C’s to reflect travel restriction requirements and enable recovery which may mean smaller group sizes, final confirmation of numbers timelines that meet expectation of later booking timelines and potential time of travel restriction changes
4. Ongoing communications – Timely updates & clarity on Covid restrictions changes
5. Innovation – share new ideas for experience delivery
6. Sustainable recovery means continuing to build and share our sustainability initiatives
7. Partnership approach and keeping in touch by follow up on commitments discussed

We look forward to better times and a return to our live workshops in 2022.  There’s lots we can be doing and sharing in planning for the recovery, so lets make the most of this years virtual events and stay in touch in the months ahead.

How to make the most of the workshops see our FAQ, click here.

And as a reminder of our Workshops of the past and the future, see them in action, click here.