Latest news with #ExperienceOxfordshire
Travel Daily News
3 days ago
- Business
- Travel Daily News
Experience Oxfordshire Venues: More confirmed bookings for Oxfordshire
Experience Oxfordshire Venues drives £1.2 million in proposals, achieving 25% booking growth and expanding global MICE market engagement for the county. Experience Oxfordshire Venues' focus on growing the county's share of the lucrative, global, business visits, meetings, incentives, conferences, and events market is showing an impressive return on investment. Over the last year the team has participated at carefully selected domestic and international exhibitions to showcase the county's enviable collection of venues and meeting spaces. In face-to-face discussions with decision-makers holding budget and responsibility for organising every size of meeting and event, the Venues team showcased the excellent quality and wide range of settings that buyers and their clients can book in Oxfordshire. In the past 12-months the team's work has generated requests for proposals worth over £1.2 million in potential incremental income for venues in the county and a 25% growth in conversions to bookings against the previous year. Earlier this year the team exhibited at International Confex, held at London's Excel. The event attracts the largest UK and European BVE (Business Visits and Events) audience of event buyers, from corporate event teams to agencies and associations, and was a great platform to showcase Experience Oxfordshire Venues partner product. This June Experience Oxfordshire Venues will be back at Excel proud to represent the county at The Meetings Show with partners Heythrop Park Hotel, Oxford Official Walking Tours and University of Oxford – Gardens, Libraries & Museums which includes the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, History of Science Museum, Museum of Natural History, Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum, and the Pitt Rivers Museum. The show attracts over 6,000 pre-qualified buyers and promises high quality engagement. As the county's Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP), Experience Oxfordshire has secured a place for the Venues team on the European Sales Mission 2025, MeetEngland's (a division of national tourism agency, VisitEngland) three city engagement roadshow. Held at the British Ambassador's residency in Geneva, Paris and Brussels, Experience Oxfordshire will hold meetings with the organisers of, much sought after, association events. For the third consecutive year, Experience Oxfordshire Venues will be attending IBTM World, Barcelona, as part of the MeetEngland stand. This is the leading global event for the meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) industry with access to 12,000+ industry professionals. Experience Oxfordshire has recently become a corporate member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Events, a cross-party group made up of members from both Houses of Parliament. In operation since 2011, the group champions the UK events industry by increasing its profile among Members of Parliament, Government Ministers, and senior officials across Whitehall. Following her attendance at the APPG's first major event of the new Parliament, Experience Oxfordshire's CEO, Hayley Beer-Gamage said: 'Experience Oxfordshire recognises the importance of the BVE and MICE markets to the county, with business visitors alone accounting for 25% of all visits made and £552 million of spend. Oxfordshire is well placed to further develop its share of this market and we are pleased to see that our efforts over the last year have had such a tangible impact. It's a sector of the visitor economy which requires a strategic approach and on-going investment as events often have a long lead-in time. We have a growing number of businesses working with us as part of Experience Oxfordshire Venues which is enabling us to better showcase Oxfordshire as a destination of choice for business visits and events.' The events industry nationally currently generates over £61 billion in direct value to the UK economy, and is responsible for providing jobs across a range of supporting sectors. Commenting on opportunities for Oxfordshire in this sector, and Experience Oxfordshire Venues' work supporting it, Paul Black, Head of Business Events at VisitBritain/VisitEngland said: 'With its heritage properties, state of the art venues, cultural assets and links to academic excellence and innovative industries, Oxfordshire provides a combination of attractive product and intellectual leadership to draw all genres of business event. In this very competitive market, it's essential to communicate with buyers on the opportunities available across Oxfordshire. MeetEngland (part of VisitEngland) is delighted for the Experience Oxfordshire Venues team to join us this year at our international trade shows, which will provide excellent opportunities to engage with important influencers and potential bookers. It is always a pleasure working in partnership with the team to promote England to global buyer audiences.' Alongside the industry engagement programme the Experience Oxfordshire Venue Finding Service is a free-to-the-user venue finding service which handles requests for advice and information on an ongoing basis from enquirers from across the globe. During the last twelve months the team managed a range of enquiries from event organisers based in the UK, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain and the USA worth over £1.2 million. A key tool to attract MICE business is the digital Experience Oxfordshire Venues Guide, sixty-two pages highlighting the range, diversity and depth of quality of the venues, incentives and experiences available within the county. This is complemented by an inspirational video showcasing the fantastic range of venues and their services on offer. Whether buyers are looking for sleek modernity or history and heritage, Oxfordshire venues are seen to provide top of the class facilities within an inspirational environment.
Travel Daily News
22-05-2025
- Business
- Travel Daily News
Experience Oxfordshire survey shows complex business landscape
Oxfordshire's visitor economy shows growth in 2024, but rising costs, cautious investment, and changing consumer behavior challenge long-term sustainability and staffing levels. As businesses get ready to make the most of the schools' half-term holiday and approaching summer season, a recent survey from the county's Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) and destination management organisation, Experience Oxfordshire, indicates a sector balancing a range of issues impacting on its sustainable growth. This years' Experience Oxfordshire Business Survey shows a complex picture. The majority of respondents, 75%, said that overall business performance had improved in 2024, (a 5% drop in positivity, however, when compared to the previous year's survey) with 68% reporting an increase in visitor numbers but 20% of operators seeing a drop when compared to 2023. Although 27% were cautious or concerned regarding business performance in the current year, 70% of respondents are expecting their business to perform well. 65% of respondents said that the current state of the UK economy is impacting negatively on their business, with a further 30% saying it was neither helping nor hindering. In particular businesses expressed concern about consumers with less disposable income and their own increased operating costs. Businesses have taken steps to mitigate the latter by increasing their prices, delaying investment, building or maintenance works and seeking additional income through diversification. 27% have reduced staffing levels which is a distinct change in circumstances from recent years when difficulties with staff recruitment and retention were a major cause for concern, affecting 41% of respondents in 2024 but this year only stated as an issue by 3%. Consumer booking behaviours established during the global pandemic are now standard with 50% of businesses stating that the current lead in time was under four weeks (a further 14% of businesses seeing the majority of their bookings made within seven days of arrival) and over half of businesses saying that over 75% of visitors pre-book products and experiences. When asked which interventions would help their business development unsurprisingly operators looked for a reduction in VAT, business rates, national insurance and the provision of sector specific development grants. At destination level, as in previous years, there was strong support for investment in marketing, use of marketing platforms to build relationships with visitors to encourage repeat trips and the benefit of high-quality, year-round experiences to be enjoyed by visitors and the local community. In recent years Experience Oxfordshire has demonstrated the effectiveness of such investment. Its recent Only in Oxfordshire campaign engaged with over 34 million individuals, generating some 750 thousand views of videos featuring inspirational Oxfordshire content. Hayley Beer-Gamage, CEO of Experience Oxfordshire commented: 'Our annual survey gives us the opportunity to gather information from a cross-section of businesses operating within the county's visitor economy and these results underline the key challenges facing these businesses today. Despite the fact that many saw an increase in visitor numbers and business performance last year, there is still widespread concern relating to rising operating costs. The measures being put in place to balance the books include a pause on investment, a trend we have seen for the last three years, and a worrying reduction in staffing levels. If continued longer term, these trends can lead to a decrease in customer satisfaction and enjoyment. Oxfordshire has more to offer visitors than many destinations, and this benefits us by attracting both domestic and international visitors. The global tourism marketplace, however, is highly competitive so it's essential that, despite the difficult operating environment, businesses maintain high standards of visitor welcome and experience. Experience Oxfordshire works with some 200 partners spanning the county's visitor economy and we know the excellent quality of experience on offer here. As VisitBritain's marketing partner we will be using all opportunities available to us this year to encourage key influencers at home and overseas to include Oxfordshire in their tour programmes, conference schedules and travel communications.' Oxfordshire's visitor economy is responsible for the employment of 10% of the local workforce, with 28.4 million visits to the county generating some £2.3 billion for the local economy. Experience Oxfordshire works with the media, travel trade and conference/event agencies within the UK and in key international markets to promote Oxfordshire and raise its profile as a great place to visit, work, live and do business with. It is the accredited Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) for Oxfordshire and as such is the national tourism agencies VisitBritain / VisitEngland's go-to body for all matters relating to tourism development and delivery in the county.
