The world’s primary business tourism trade fair, IMEX is the place to be for anyone with even the slightest interest in business tourism and incentive travel.
Held in Frankfurt, Germany, from April 22 to 24, IMEX 2008 is expected to feature more than 3 400 exhibitors from more than 150 different countries, including various national and regional tourism offices, major hotel groups and airlines, destination management companies, service providers, trade associations and more.
They will be displaying their wares to, and communicating with, over 3 500 hosted buyers from more than 60 world markets. It’s the kind of captive audience sales and marketing teams drool over.
With over 10 000 visitors expected to attend the 3 days of the exhibition, IMEX 2008 will offer exhibitors the chance to reach out to numerous markets and it’s a chance that South African Tourism (SAT) will not be passing up.
Strong SAT Presence
As with past IMEX shows, the SAT presence will be a strong one, possibly the biggest, most complete contingent the tourism authority has yet sent to the trade show - with trade and destination pavilions, as well as a special media and press show pencilled in for April 23.
According to Gill Schreiber of SAT’s Business Tourism department, part of the management team behind SAT’s IMEX involvement, the size of the South African stand and team has grown every year because of the interest shown by buyers. This year they are pulling out all the stops to ensure that we once again stand out from the masses.
‘This is the flagship platform for South African Tourism, especially the business tourism side of things’, says Schreiber, ‘and we will be going all-out to sell the country to the widest possible market, be it business or pleasure orientated.’
And IMEX certainly does afford the opportunity to interact with the widest possible market. With the organisers reporting increased participation from all sectors of the industry and from across the world, together with a rise in the number of hosted buyer groups and a forecast increase in the number of key German decision makers attending, predictions are that IMEX 2008 will be the busiest and largest show to date.
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