North East England welcomed more than 30 tour operators to showcase the huge range of experiences, attractions and accommodation across the region.

Destination North East England in partnership with UKinbound hosted leading tour operators from across the leisure, corporate and student sectors, representing markets such as the US, Canada, Germany, Holland and Nordics as part of its Discover Programme.

The group arrived in the region on Sunday, April 28^th for a 3-day whistle-stop tour of the region. Delegates, who are all members of UKinbound, include Virgin Experience Days, Cashel Travel Ltd, Tour Partner Group and Angela Shanley Associates.

As well as getting the chance to visit some of the North East’s key visitor attractions there was the opportunity for tourism and hospitality businesses to meet one-to-one with the buyers at a Showcase event to be held at St James’ Park.

The Discover programme aims to connect buyers and suppliers in destinations which are less familiar to understand more about the area and meet experience providers, accommodation providers, tour guides and ground transportation companies to learn about their products and services.

The group headed out on a tour of the region with visits to The Auckland Project; Beamish; Hadrian’s Wall; Newcastle’s Victoria Tunnel for a and St James’ Park. There was also a networking evening at Blackfriars restaurant hosted by Destination North East England.

The Showcase event, was held on Tues April 30^th which saw almost 400 dedicated face-to-face appointments take place between the buyers and suppliers.

Alex MacKenzie, Travel Trade Manager at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, who are leading on Destination North East England on behalf of the region

“We have been working with UKinbound to bring the Discover programme event to the North East since last Autumn so it is fantastic to now be able to welcome the delegates. “This is an unbelievable opportunity for tourism businesses in our region who are looking to attract international visitors. They will be able to connect directly with those organisations who can then develop packages and tours to a part of the UK they may not have featured before,"

“Within the travel trade industry, the North East is still relatively undiscovered but through partnerships with organisations such as UKinbound we can now make sure that we are on the map for both independent and group business. The opportunity to introduce a wide range of our amazing local and regional tourism suppliers to tour operators that have expressed a specific interest in bringing their clients to the North East through events such as this one are key to developing the travel trade strategy to support the wider visitor economy, and we are looking forward to showing the delegates a true Northern welcome.”

Joss Croft OBE, CEO of UKinbound said “We are delighted to be working with Destination North East England to showcase this wonderful region to a group of our leading UK buyer members, who specialise in curating holidays to the UK for international visitors.

“International visitors are incredibly valuable to the North East, spending £400 million in the region in 2019, and travel trade events such as this will further aid the growth of this sector, supporting jobs and businesses across the region.”