“Build product and they will come,” says slow travel pioneer

“Build product and they will come,” says slow travel pioneer

Travel companies can “close the intention-action gap” by building easily bookable slow travel product says a pioneer in the field.  

 Flight-free tour operator and B Corp Byway, launched during the pandemic, creates rail-based itineraries with the intention to “make slow travel mainstream.” 

 Speaking in a session on carbon reduction at World Travel Market London, Byway CEO Cat Jones said: “People don’t need to fly as much as they do by a very, very long way,” but she admitted they lacked easy access to alternatives.  

 “We have to have that energy to make it easy wherever it is easy,” she said, stressing that replacing more short-haul flights with rail should be a ‘quick win’. 

 She stressed there was no shortage of intention from consumers to find alternatives to flights, the issue was “productising a lot of the knowledge.”  

 Byway has partnered with larger tour operators including Intrepid, Exodus and Kuoni to allow them to offer ‘slow travel’ product more easily.  

 Through collaboration with European destinations the company has meanwhile been able to build itineraries that avoid contributing to overtourism and instead elevate lesser-trodden areas. “We have a ‘hotspot penalty’ built into the system,” Jones explained.  

 She also spoke of the importance of word-of-mouth, with relatively low numbers switching to slow travel through companies such as hers but then becoming “ambassadors for this kind of travel and why it’s so gorgeous.” 

 Continuing the carbon-reduction theme, Ewout Versloot, strategist for Netherlands Board of Tourism told WTM delegates how the destination was looking at creating an ‘eco efficiency index’.  

 Its intention is to prioritise arrivals that have the highest benefit, not only financially but also on a social and environmental level, “We need new KPIs,” said Versloot. 

 The University of Surrey is helping tourist boards with similar research by plotting carbon footprint versus spend from different source markets to enable destinations to prioritise those travellers with a healthy balance of economic value and sustainability.  

 

—ENDS—

Photography from WTM shows is available to download via the following link: https://wtm.mediafiler.net/wtm/start/index

World Travel Market (WTM) Portfolio comprises leading travel events, online portals and virtual platforms across four continents. The events are:

WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend three-day exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. The show facilitates business connections for the global (leisure) travel community. Senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media visit ExCeL London every November, generating travel industry contracts.

Next live event: Monday 7 to 9 November 2022 at ExCel London and 6-8 November 2023 at ExCel London.  http://london.wtm.com/

Arabian Travel Market (ATM), now on its 30th year, is the leading, international travel and tourism event in the Middle East for inbound and outbound tourism professionals. ATM 2022 attracted over 23,000 visitors and hosted over 30,000 participants including 1,500 exhibitors and attendees from 150 countries, across 10 halls at Dubai World Trade Centre. Arabian Travel Market is part of Arabian Travel Week. #ATMDubai

Next in-person event: Monday 1 to Thursday 4 May 2023, Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai

https://www.wtm.com/atm/en-gb.html

Arabian Travel Week is a festival of events taking place within and alongside Arabian Travel Market 2023. Providing a renewed focus for the Middle East’s travel and tourism sector, it includes ILTM Arabia, ARIVAL Dubai, Influencers’ events and activations, ITIC, GBTA Business Travel Forums, as well as ATM Travel Tech. It also features the ATM Buyer Forums, ATM Speed Networking Events as well as a series of country forums.

https://www.wtm.com/arabian-travel-week/en-gb.html

WTM Latin America takes place annually in the city of São Paulo and attracts around 20,000 tourism professionals during the three-day event. The event offers qualified content together with networking and business opportunities. In this its ninth edition – there have been eight face-to-face events along with a 100% virtual one, which was held in 2021 – WTM Latin America continued to focus on effective business generation, and achieved the advance booking of six thousand meetings that were held between buyers, travel agents and exhibitors in 2022.

Next event: Monday April 3rd to Wednesday 5th April 2023 – Expo Center Norte, SP, Brazil

http://latinamerica.wtm.com/

WTM Africa launched in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa.  In 2022, WTM Africa facilitated more than 7 thousand unique pre-scheduled appointments, an increase of more than 7% compared to 2019 and welcomed more than 6 thousand visitors (unaudited), the same number as in 2019.

Next event: Monday 3 to Wednesday 5 April 2023 – Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town http://africa.wtm.com/

About ATW Connect:  Africa Travel Week’s digital arm, is a virtual hub packed to the seams with interesting content, industry news and insights, and the opportunity to hear from experts on a variety of topics in our new monthly webinar series. All with the aim to keep all of us in the travel and tourism industry connected. ATW Connect focuses on inbound and outbound markets for general leisure tourism, luxury travel, LGBTQ+ travel and the MICE/business travel sector as well as travel technology.

https://atwconnect.com/

WTM Global Hub, is the new WTM Portfolio online portal created to connect and support travel industry professionals around the world. The resource hub offers the latest guidance and knowledge to help exhibitors, buyers and others in the travel industry face the challenges of the global coronavirus pandemic. WTM Portfolio is tapping into its global network of experts to create content for the hub. https://hub.wtm.com/

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RX is in the business of building businesses for individuals, communities and organisations. We elevate the power of face to face events by combining data and digital products to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 400 events in 22 countries across 43 industry sectors. RX is passionate about making a positive impact on society and is fully committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all our people. RX is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.rxglobal.com

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