Antor, the only official membership organisation of international, national and regional tourist offices and representatives in the UK kicked off the year with its Annual Review on 22 January hosted by JCDecaux in their London offices.
The top takeaways were: the need to communicate with GenZ in their language, travel is back for the older age groups, the UK has the highest tourism taxes in Europe due to VAT levels and the impact of the Antor community is continuing to grow.
At this member-only event industry experts shared their perspectives on some of the issues affecting destinations in 2024 and beyond, delivering insights on the evolving travel landscape. Providing free events for members is one of the key benefits of Antor membership, giving members access to destination-specific information, trends and market intelligence as well as the opportunity to network with their peers.
This year’s Annual Review welcomed three guest speakers from BDRC/BVA, JCDecaux and the Tourism Alliance. Key takeaways from each included:
JCDecaux spoke about how to engage Gen Z. One of the interesting reveals about Gen Z is despite being a generation that is committed to saving the planet and sustainability, when it comes to booking travel it’s low down on their priorities. JCDecaux’s research shows that they tend to want to get to the furthest possible place, for the cheapest possible price.
Jon Young, Director, BVA BDRC shared their latest consumer travel trends research which highlighted that destinations have reason to be optimistic for the year ahead. Data on overseas trip intentions suggests that trip-taking is nearing pre-pandemic levels, with older travellers driving this.
Richard Toomer, Executive Director, Tourism Alliance looked at the impact politics and elections have on outbound travel. With elections in the UK, USA and India this year this is a hot topic right now. He said the impact will be less acute than on domestic and inbound travel, but policies affecting EU travel, tourist taxes, VAT and APD hikes will influence travel.
There was also a panel discussion on sustainable tourism promotion with member panellists from Visit Gibraltar, Visit Isle of Man and the Catalan Tourist Board, which resulted in Antor agreeing to develop a charter for sustainable tourism promotion in 2024.
Antor Chair and UK Head of Visit Gibraltar, Tracey Poggio, said: “As a member destination I know how valuable events like our annual review are for the destination heads covering the UK market. Three-quarters of our members attend our annual review and those that are unable to attend can request the content. We also have a free annual conference at the end of the year which covers some of the big issues in travel, as well as smaller networking events throughout the year for members to find out more from the travel trade and media.
“Antor also provides members with bespoke quarterly consumer travel trends research which is carried out by BDRC/BVA. This gives destinations vital insight that can help them plan their activity and promotions. Research, market intelligence and the unique community are key reasons to be part of Antor. We’re launching an Antor ‘Whatsapp group this year to enhance our community interaction and make it easier for members to communicate with each other.
“We’re a tight-knit community who share day-to-day destination issues and wins throughout the year, as membership is open to all destination national, regional and city tourist boards,”
