“Vibrant…" "Wonderful…" "We’ve been inundated” are among the wealth of positive feedback received for Excursions™ 2023, which took place on 28th January 2023 at Twickenham Stadium. As the UK’s longest-running group travel show, and the first in the annual calendar, the show is a must-attend event for the group travel community,  bringing together GTOs, coach operators, tour operators and itinerary planners with destinations, attractions, venues, cruise companies, ticketing agencies, hotels and resorts from across the UK and near Europe.

Ashley Jones of Frameless says: “It’s been as wonderful as it always is. You just know you’re going to get so many people coming by, particularly if you’ve got a brand new product and Frameless is really catching their imagination. Excursions is so well established, the visitors know the quality of the attractions they’ll be talking to and we know they’re serious about buying so it’s always going to work.”

Group Travel Organiser Carol Willett said of her visitor experience: “Absolutely fantastic, I’ve met so many interesting people and I’ve got so many places to visit in the next year. It’s interesting, it’s better this year.”

More than 650 people from the group travel community descended on Twickenham Stadium for the 49th annual show featuring over 100 exhibitors. As well as networking and connecting with peers and industry friends in the exhibition rooms, guests were also treated to a special Disney exhibit, bespoke mini-tours of Twickenham Stadium and free access to the World Rugby Museum. Special pre-arranged “Private Coach Arrivals” also received an extra special welcome with exclusive access to the VIP area where they tasted the award-winning wines from Denbies Vineyard, enjoyed Brockley’s Pies and authentic Belgian chocolates courtesy of Visit Wallonia.

Graham Hukins at North Norfolk Railway explained: “It’s been really good. Over the last five decades Excursions has grown to be a trusted brand and is absolutely the best way to for us to contact GTOs, coach operators and tour operators. We trust it but most importantly the trade travel trust the brand so it’s a really good way of getting our message across.”

Joe Pugh with first-time exhibitor Skipton Boat Tours said, “It’s been really good show, better than we expected. There’s been more exhibitor stands from other parts of the country and been more visitors as well and we’ve had more interest that I was expecting!”

Sharing her views on the 2023 show, Fran Downton, CEO at Tourism South East, who organise the show, commented, “We were delighted to welcome such a high quality of exhibitors and visitors to Excursions, a number of whom were joining us for the first time. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with both exhibitors and visitors saying they have made lots of new connections and met different people to previous years and at other shows. With so many successful conversations we know the show helps to facilitate future business in the group travel market and Tourism South East is committed to the continued support of this sector.”

Excursions will return in 2024 and will celebrate its 50th anniversary. For more information about the show or to subscribe to news updates, please visit www.excursionsshow.com.