Member Article

European travel buyers visit County Durham

European travel buyers have been on a two-day visit to County Durham as part of a major tourism industry conference.

The delegates from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands were in Durham as part of the Hosted Buyers Marketplace, organised by VisitBritain and the European Tour Operators Association.

The group toured Stables Microbrewery at Beamish Hall Hotel and drank in sights around the county with a walking tour of Durham City, along with visits to Auckland Castle in the Vale of Durham and the Bowes Museum in the Durham Dales.

Melanie Sensicle, chief executive of Visit County Durham, said: “We are delighted to partner VisitBritain and the ETOA in this initiative. It is a fantastic opportunity to showcase what Durham has to offer to a network of international buyers in a cost-effective, time-efficient manner.

“Our job now is to convert their interest into visits and to get Durham into tour operators’ programmes and sold by overseas travel agents.”

Kerry McCabe, sales manager of Beamish Hall Hotel, said: “I’m overjoyed to be working in partnership with Visit County Durham on this industry event. It’s been great fun to welcome the delegates from Europe to Beamish Hall and introduce them to what Durham has to offer.”

Ludo Sidler, one of the Dutch delegates, said: “It’s lovely to come to Durham. You can still feel something of the past. It’s one of the highlights of the area – history coming to life.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .