News - 29/11/16

Visit Isle of Wight and ‘Destination Cowes’ attended the World Travel Market earlier this month, where more than 50,000 travel professionals gathered at Excel London to look at destination ideas from around the world. 

At the show, Visit Isle of Wight introduced the new Island Destination Manual and the trade gateway, a new initiative to attract overseas visitors. On Monday, 7th November during a busy press day, the new ‘Destination Cowes’ partnership was launched on the exhibition stand by Cowes Town Council and Cowes Harbour Commission (CHC).

Harbour Master Capt. Stuart McIntosh, who represented CHC at the launch, said: “It is very positive to see Destination Cowes at such a high profile trade event and we look forward to working with all Destination Cowes partners to attract new events and visitors to Cowes and East Cowes.”

Visit Isle of Wight gained 100 new travel contacts at the WTM, from travel journalists in Canada, the USA, India, China and closer to home, along with strong interest from package holiday operators who were keen to hear about “pure island happiness” and what it could do for them.

Andrew Turner, MP for the Island, popped in on Tuesday to see how things were going, and David Thornton, CEO of Visit Isle of Wight, plus other members of the team manned the stand over three days to deal with enquiries from companies as diverse as Expedia online, Walking Group Organisers in Wales, Canadian Bloggers and Indian travel agents.

Visit Isle of Wight are following up on the interest gathered at the show and plan to go on to attend EXPLOREGB with Visit Britain next spring in Brighton.

Top photo, L-R: Capt. Stuart McIntosh, Cowes Harbour Master, and David Thornton, CEO of Visit Isle of Wight at the launch of Destination Cowes at London’s World Travel Market.