Incentive travel industry heads to Las Vegas for IMEX America 2013
This month, Chapman Freeborn’s passenger air charter team is heading to IMEX America – the largest tradeshow of its kind in the US for incentive travel, meetings and events.
The third edition of the show will take place at the newly renovated Sands Expo Convention in Las Vegas, October 15-17, and the organisers have already announced that the number of hosted buyers and exhibiting companies are set to exceed those set at last year’s event.
As we blogged recently, the general mood in the industry is that the incentive travel market is now turning the corner – with a growing number of corporations looking at staging product launches, conferences and corporate events again in 2014.
However, challenges clearly remain for both the incentive travel sector and the wider travel industry. Only this week fears were raised that travel firms could be negatively impacted by the budget problems facing the American government.
While key services such as air traffic control and customs have remained unaffected so far, this week’s shutdown of key tourist attractions including the Statue of Liberty and hundreds of national parks is not good news for a sector looking to get back on its feet.
In terms of the business travel community, there are also concerns that further administrative hold-ups could cause delays on securing passports and visas essential for international travel.
Hopefully IMEX America will be an opportunity to discuss some of these wider issues, as well as focussing on the positive steps being taken to boost business in the incentive travel market.
Alongside discussions on issues such as travel security and crisis management, other hot topics on the agenda include data mining, marketing strategies and social media integration.
If you’re heading to IMEX America please get in touch as we’ll be at the event (Booth 2030) showcasing our specialist aircraft charter services, as well as introducing our new division offering group tickets on scheduled flights.
To arrange a meeting at IMEX America 2013 or to find out more about our services, please contact us on +1-954-202-0750 or email groupsusa@chapman-freeborn.com
