The 19th Norway International Meeting and Travel Fair - Reiseliv 06 - The perfect match between tour operators and travellers! Review Part 2 of 2

AIDA is an acronym used in marketing that describes general steps of actions that is very often underestimated when a company or a person is selling a product or service, or even better for the travel industry to offer: "adventure". This is just what travellers are looking for.

Here is a brief description of the AIDA-model:
A - Attention - to attract the attention of the customer.
I - Interest - to get the customer interested by demonstrating its features, advantages, and benefits.
D - Desire - convincing customers of the product's advantage and its ability to satisfy specific needs.
A - Action - to push customers toward actually purchasing the product.

Nowadays some have added another letter and thus it is called AIDA(S):
S - Satisfaction - to get the customer satisfied so that they could be a repeat customer and so they could give word-of-mouth to the particular product.

AIDA fills in the gaps for true business performance, and based on these 4 - 5 promotional goals there it's also possible to recognize the difference in efforts and emphasise the tour operators put in their marketing work. This corresponds highly with number prospects they manage to collect and sales results (bookings) they achieve during the travel fair period.

The 19th Norway International Meeting and Travel Fair - Reiseliv 06 - opened its doors to the trade on Thursday 12 January 2006 with more exhibitors and a larger area than ever.

On the last day, Sunday 15th January, I enjoyed myself very much, looking around there for 5 - 6 hours, observing and talking to a lot of visitors, media and exhibitors.

Based on my impressions, I would like to summarize the travel fair with the following points:

• Great event and superb organizational planning
• Positive and relaxed atmosphere
• Friendly and enthusiastic people, both on the stands and visitors
• Quality of attendees high; people who visited the stands were genuine interested in various kind of travelling, so in that way the tour operators met their target group within relevant segments
• Great inspiration for travellers; many tour operators make the world bigger by offer new tour opportunities to remote and exotic places.

The Tour Operator Kenyor
The Kenor stand for promoting tour to Kenya in Africa was one of the absolute best stands. It was small, but very well designed with figures of animals and decorations, video player and screen and map, that gave visitors imaginations of an exotic world in Africa. The staff was as usual very competent and service minded, and they know how to handle their clients. It was one of the best stands for inspiration. The staff succeeded to attract visitors in to the stand, so they could get in near contact with them and talk seriously to them.

Hvitserk
Well decorated. Impressing design. Always a popular stand for adventure seeking people. But where was the tall Masaii who stood on the stand previous year? He drew a lot of attention and made the stand very exotic. The manager Kristian Joos has streamlined the company since he started in the job for few years ago. This tour operator is definitely one of the most professional and pioneering in everything. They have probably the most colourful and inspiring brochures.

The staff in Hvitserk has definitely the toughest and most experience tour guides. The staff is also good sellers, and they follow up their clients with evaluations, request for feedback, invitation to presentations and information and new tour offers in newsletters and postal letters.

Photo. The Hvitserk stand was staffed well up with professional guides and good sellers, and backed up by professional marketing material. © Travel Explorations.

This tour operator is also very innovative. Hvitserk arranged two expeditions to the South Pole previous year; one international and one Norwegian group - both led by experienced Hvitserk-guides with numerous crossings of the Greenland icecap and other expeditions behind them. For 2006, Hvitserk offers the tour "Tripple Africa", where their experienced guide take traveller sup to the three highest mountains in Africa: Mt Margherita, Mt Kenya and Kilimanjaro. Hvitserk also plans to take clients on trekking and climbing tours to the world second highest mountain K2 - Karakoram and Cho Oyu in 2006, and Mt. Everest in 2007.

The Svalbard stand - the North stand
This common stand for northern regions in Norway included Svalbard had well designed walls, but it could be improved by images of animals to symbolize the rich wildlife there, and it could also be displayed and demonstrated activities for getting an unique adventure on Svaldbard.

Photos. The Svalbard stand. Svaldbard in northern Norway is one of the world`s last frontiers. © Travel Explorations.

Svalbard is probably one of the few regions in the world where nature is untouched and wild, and where people can enjoy the sound of silence. The stand was represented by enthusiastic people who had really passion for the environment and loved to guide people around. As a comment to improve this stand for another occasion, I will just say: Svalbard is more than ice.

This article continues in Part 3. Read more news from the Norway International Meeting and Travel Fair - Reiseliv 06.

Additional information
You will also find several reports with photos on our website from the previous travel trade in Norway: Reiseliv 05. Click on the link www.travelexplorations.com and search for the articles.

Travel Explorations is specialized in running tailormade promotion campaigns for tour operators and other travel companies. We attract clients (travellers) to our buisness partners. Based on travel tales, articles and news reports we create ideas, give inspiration and make people dream about adventures. And so they wonder who can help them to fullfill their dreams.

Tour operators and other travel companies who are interesting in information and offers about what Travel Explorations can do for them, please contact us on e-mail: stein@travelexplorations.com.