B2B Marketing Opportunities

Visit West operates the official Convention Bureau for Bristol, Bath, and the West of England. Our core objective is to promote the region as a first-class destination for business events and incentive travel

This is delivered through attendance at industry events, destination familiarisation trips, digital campaigns and proactive sales activity. Our Convention Bureau team works year-round to generate business event enquiries for the destinations.

Collaboration & Bid Support

Collaboration sits at the heart of how we market venues and event services within the wider destination offer. We focus on building strong, productive relationships with businesses across the region that are looking to attract meetings, incentive trips, conferences and exhibitions.

Through the Convention Bureau, we also work with local stakeholders, industry partners, and academics to support bids for conference business aligned with the region's key economic and academic strengths.

Convention Bureau Marketing Opportunities

If you are a Visit West member (Gold & Partner level), there are numerous opportunities throughout the year to market your product or service to conference and event planners through our Visit West Convention Bureau channel.

Exhibitions & Trade Shows

Throughout the year, our team attends exhibitions, trade shows, and sales missions, mostly in partnership with national bodies including VisitBritain and MeetEngland, where we represent the region directly, engaging with event organisers, agencies, and corporate buyers.

We sometimes offer stand-share opportunities for Visit West members, allowing you to attend key events under a regional destination banner. 

Events where stand-share opportunities may be available include:

• The Meetings Show
• CHS (Manchester)

​To find out about current Convention Bureau stand-share opportunities, contact us at events@visitwest.co.uk

Digital Packages and Advertising

Digital options include featured adverts on landing pages, banner adverts on visitwestconventionbureau.co.uk, LinkedIn and Instagram posts, and banner adverts in the Convention Bureau e-newsletter. 

• Head to our advertising page for full details and contacts if you are interested.

Visit West operates the official Travel Trade engagement for Bristol, Bath, and the West of England, working to promote the region as a must-visit destination for international visitors and group travel.

Throughout the year, there will be opportunities to promote your business to the travel trade, either directly, through stand-sharing at events, by participating in a familiarisation visits or by advertising in our communications. The opportunities can be local, national, or international in scope.

Travel Trade Marketing Opportunities

Travel Trade Exhibitions & Stand Shares

Our Travel Trade team attends key group travel and tourism trade shows throughout the year, with stand-share opportunities available for Visit West members looking to expand their travel trade network and increase group bookings.

We also attend a number of events and sales missions where stand sharing is not possible. At these events we still represent the whole region, but greatly appreciate updates from members in advance so we can go with the latest information and news to present to buyers. We often get asked a huge array of questions and some buyers have very specific queries or clients looking for particular things. Due to this, we do not charge for additional representation at such events. Instead we make introductions with businesses where relevant, or advise on potential demand and work with that business to become 'Travel Trade Ready'.

Events where stand-share opportunities may be available include:

• Group Leisure & Travel Show – Arena MK, Milton Keynes. Buyers include tour operators, coach operators, group travel organisers, and travel agents. This event takes place each September.
• British Tourism & Travel Show – NEC Birmingham. Buyers include tour operators, coach operators, group travel organisers, and travel agents. This event takes place each March.

Both include social media promotion of your venue before and during the show. A standard pull-up banner is required from each sharer.

For further information on Travel Trade stand-share opportunities, contact us at traveltrade@visitwest.co.uk

Familiarisation trips 

Visit West hosts a variety of familiarisation trips (also known as fam trips or educational visits, but not to be confused with a group of visiting students!) throughout the year. Attendees for these trips are always pre-qualified and are often in collaboration with VisitBritain and other destinations.  

For a tour operator who works in product development or itinerary planning, it’s an invaluable tool to learn about a destination. And for accommodation providers, tour guides, experiences and attractions, it can be an amazing opportunity to showcase their products and increase future bookings. 

The Visit West team can help and advise our members on how to host a familiarisation visit in order to make the most of the opportunity.  

Representation at events 

Visit West attends a number of B2B workshops and sales missions throughout the year. We do not charge any additional costs above your membership fee for representation at these events where additional delegates or stand-sharers aren't possible. Instead, we represent the whole region. This allows us to talk about the most appropriate businesses to match the buyers' client base and we can do introductions as part of our follow up.

Some Visit West members attend some of these events independently too. This brings additional value to both the business and the destination by demonstrating a critical mass of products available and engaged in working proactively with the travel trade. If you wish to discuss attending selected events and for impartial advice, contact us at traveltrade@visitwest.co.uk

Become a Member

By becoming a Visit West member, you will have access to a suite of benefits and services for your business and become part of a network of over 600 like-minded businesses, working together to develop and market the region to consumers, travel trade, and the business events industry.

Through membership you will receive benefits and services unique to our members, providing routes to market, marketing opportunities, business support, information and engagement, as well as clear signposting of wider industry partnerships. Members also receive a discounted rate on all advertising opportunities.

• Find out more about Visit West Membership

Member-to-Member Offers

As a Visit West member, you have access to exclusive offers and discounts from fellow businesses across Bristol, Bath, and the West of England. Our member-to-member programme is designed to help you save, grow, and collaborate - fostering stronger connections and mutual support across the regional business community.

• If you have an offer that you would like to offer to your fellow Visit West members please email membership@visitwest.co.uk 

Speaker opportunities 

Visit West runs an extensive and varied member events programme throughout the year, with our showcase event being our annual Regional Visitor Economy Conference, usually held in the first quarter of the year. We regularly invite relevant guest speakers to many of our events to make them as engaging as possible and add value to each event. 

In addition to this, Visit West can (subject to availability) offer to be a guest speaker at external events, such as a welcome to a conference or offering insights into our work in the visitor economy. Get in touch on enquiries@visitwest.co.uk to discuss any requests.