Businesses attending the recent Experience Oxfordshire Venues Partner Meeting hosted by Keble College heard from guest speakers VisitBritain/VisitEngland Business Events and The Delegate Wranglers, who both commended the new video showcase, citing it as an impressive and important promotional tool for attracting businesses and bookings.
Despite operating in a highly competitive global marketplace, Oxfordshire is a destination which attracts great interest from this sector and activity in this area delivers tangible results.
Earlier this year the Experience Oxfordshire team exhibited at CHS Leeds, a one-day show for business visits and event organisers, and the largest MICE exhibition outside London. Joining forces with The Delegate Wranglers® as a stand partner, a mix of pre-scheduled appointments and walk ups on the day delivered some quality requests for proposals from Oxfordshire venues and many new connections were made.
International business visitors spent £5.2 billion in the UK in 2023 and accounted for 17% of all trips and spend made by inbound visitors in that year. The value of these travellers has grown over time and has shown a swift recovery post-pandemic with spend up on 2022 and only just behind that achieved in 2019.
November will see the team on the MeetEngland stand at IBTM World in Barcelona, the leading global event for the meetings, incentives, conferences and events industry. With 4,700 registered buyers the event provides Experience Oxfordshire with an excellent opportunity to present the county’s fabulous venues and attractions to a high value sector.
In February over a thousand organisers, agencies and corporate buyers will flock to London’s Excel for International Confexwhere the Experience Oxfordshire team will promote the county at large and its Venue Partners’ latest products and services. Attendance at Confex is partially supported by OxLEP (Oxfordshire’s Local Economy Partnership) through the Visitor Economy Renaissance Programme (VERP).
Experience Oxfordshire CEO, Hayley Beer-Gamage said: “Business visitors have shorter stays, but have a higher value. In Oxfordshire our business visitors stay on average three nights, accounting for 23% of all visits and 20% of spend. This is because in Oxfordshire we have the right mix of product and experience to deliver beyond the expectation of this market. For our local businesses to continue to thrive it’s important to communicate effectively with agents and buyers to ensure they are aware of all we can offer. Exhibitions provide the opportunity to meet one-to-one with these key influencers and we are delighted to have this new video with which to showcase our county and the wonderful range of Venue Partners we represent.”
These outreach activities are supported by the core Experience Oxfordshire team including the Experience Oxfordshire Venue Finding Service which handles requests for advice and information for free on an ongoing basis from enquirers from across the globe. During the last eighteen months the team handled a range of enquiries from event organisers based in the UK, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, Spain and the USA worth in the region of £1 million.
Another key tool in explaining Oxfordshire’s offer to buyers is the latest edition of the digital Experience Oxfordshire Venues Guide, sixty-two pages highlighting the range, diversity and depth of quality of the venues, incentives and experiences available within the county.
The new inspirational video showcases the fantastic range of venues and their services on offer within the county. Whether buyers are looking for sleek modernity or history and heritage, Oxfordshire venues are seen to provide top of the class facilities within an inspirational environment.
