Reed Travel Exhibitions Acquires Business Travel Market
Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) announces the acquisition of Business Travel Market (BTM), the annual corporate travel conference and exhibition held at London’s ExCeL, for an undisclosed sum.
Launched in 2009 by Paul Robin, BTM was the first event serving the corporate travel sector to successfully accommodate fully hosted key buyers from all over Europe. The event has doubled in size since the first show, and has enjoyed consistent support through key players in the business travel industry.
The Business Travel Market will sit within the global portfolio of meetings industry shows led by Craig Moyes, Group Exhibition Director. BTM’s Hosted Buyer and pre-scheduled appointment system matches the business model for the current portfolio of business events run by RTE for the meetings, events and incentives industry including AIME (Australia), AIBTM (USA), CIBTM (China) EIBTM (Spain), GIBTM (Abu Dhabi) which annually attract over 5,000 suppliers from 100 countries and 17,000 meeting planners with over 100,000 pre-scheduled appointments.
Richard Mortimore, Managing Director of Reed Exhibitions commented: “This acquisition is strategically important to our travel portfolio of events. We have monitored BTM’s progress with interest, its successful ‘hosted buyer programme’ format complements our own. We believe we can further consolidate BTM’s position in Europe as well as develop its brand in other markets where we already operate. It is also clear that corporate travel is integrated within the meetings and events sector, especially in emerging markets and this will allow us to incorporate this knowledge and expertise and provide added value to our shows around the world.’
Paul Robin, Business Travel Market Event Director said: “Having established BTM in the face of difficult market conditions and with limited resource, it is as pleasing as it is exciting to look forward to developing BTM as part of the world’s largest event organiser. I am grateful to all of our loyal sponsors, partners, clients, suppliers and advisors for their support. I would also like to thank all my colleagues past and present for their dedication. All we ever wanted to do was build an event worthy of this great industry; with Reed’s ownership and expertise, we have the opportunity to make that vision a lasting reality."
Robin, and the team will continue to run the event, and will be located within the Reed Travel Exhibitions headquarters in Richmond, England. The 4th Business Travel Market takes place on 13-14 June 2012 at London’s ExCeL. For further information and updates please visit www.businesstravelmarket.co.uk or www.ibtmevents.com
ENDS
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1. Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading provider of exhibitions in the travel and tourism industry. Its wide-ranging portfolio of events around the globe covers leisure travel, luxury travel and the meetings and incentives industry.
The 12 events are; World Travel Market (WTM), Arabian Travel Market (ATM), International French Travel Market (IFTM), La Cumbre, International Golf Travel Market (IGTM), International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM), International Luxury Travel Market Asia (ILTMA), Asia Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo (AIME) (owned by Melbourne Convention Visitors Bureau), the Global Meetings & Events Exhibition (EIBTM), Gulf Incentive Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM), Americas Meetings & Events Exhibition (AIBTM) and China Incentive Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (CIBTM).
RTE is a business unit of Reed Exhibitions.
2. For further press information, please visit the Reed Travel Exhibitions’ website on www.reedtravelexhibitions.com.
3. Reed Exhibitions (www.reedexpo.com) is the world’s leading events organiser, with over 440 events in 36 countries. In 2010 Reed brought together over seven million active event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and organised by 34 fully staffed offices.
4. Reed Exhibitions is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a FTSE-100 company and world-leading publisher and information provider.
5. Business Travel Market (BTM)
Business Travel Market (BTM) is now in its 4th year and was the first UK-based industry event to offer a fully hosted programme to qualifying corporate travel buyers from all over Europe. A sophisticated appointments system enables both buyers and suppliers to fix pre-arranged 1-2-1 meetings with each other. There is also free to attend top-quality conference content provided by ACTE open to all visitors. There are numerous networking events too.
The next Business Travel Market will take place on 13/14 June 2012 at London's ExCeL.
Helping to shape the 2012 event is an advisory board comprising leading figures from the European corporate travel industry - these include Arja Niilekselä-Tiainen, (Cargotec Corporation Finland); Lee Whiteing (HSBC Bank) Herman Mensink (Prism Group Netherlands), Paul Johannes (Qatar Airways), Emma Harris (Eurostar), Jo Stevenson (Accor) and Richard Tams (British Airways), Tony Pilcher (Pilcher Associates) and Tom Stone (Sirius Management).
The management team is headed by BTM Founder Paul Robin and Neil Simpson, BTM’s Head of Sales, both of whom have a strong track record of running successful B2B events in the travel sector.
