VisitBritain have this week confirmed that Liverpool will be the host city for flagship tourism event ExploreGB in 2016.
The first ExploreGB was held at Ascot Racecourse last month and saw over 260 suppliers in the tourism sector engage with more than 250 overseas buyers from 40 countries.
Now, VisitBritain, the country’s national tourism agency, has revealed that ExploreGB will become an annual event and comes to Liverpool next year.
Chris Brown, director of Marketing Liverpool, said:
“You only need to look at the number and calibre of delegates at this year’s ExploreGB to understand its importance to the UK. We are delighted to be hosting this prestigious event in 2016, which presents not only a great opportunity for Liverpool but also for the north.
“We will work closely with VisitBritain to ensure we deliver an even bigger and more successful event.”
Sally Balcombe, chief executive at VisitBritain, said this year’s event was a great success and added:
“This event was a great success and we’ve never seen fam trips hosted on such a scale across Britain. But we will not rest on our laurels and already look forward to growing, and taking, Britain’s largest B2B event to the fantastic city of Liverpool in 2016.”
VisitBritain has ambitions to grow ExploreGB into one of the most significant events in the national tourism calendar. Sally continued:
“We’ve started well, but we will grow. I’d like to see almost double the buyers within 5 years, and, for this increasingly influential event to travel across the country each year.”
Words: Peter Cribley