Discover New England Update & News

Dear New England Tourism Industry:

Fall in New England is a special time and what has made it even better this year is the October 15 announcement by the U.S. government that we are now welcoming vaccinated international travelers back this month. And we’re looking forward to doing just that!

I spent the last week of October in London with our friends at TTM participating in Brand USA Travel Week. It was great to finally connect in person and discuss our region. While COVID-19 was and continues to be a challenging time for every industry, it gives me great pride that our travel industry is not only resilient but continues to grow and innovate in preparation for much-anticipated travelers making their return to New England.

During the show, DNE had 40 scheduled appointments with tour operators in UK/Ireland, Belgium/Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland/Denmark. The enthusiasm for the New England states was palpable, and we aim to continue that momentum and energy moving into 2022.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.

Best regards,

Chris Jennings, Executive Director

Discover New England

Brand USA Travel Week 2021, London

Travel Week Europe, held October 25-29, was the first in-person Brand USA event since 2019, and only the second time this event has been held. Nearly 500 delegates came together to discuss trends, explore opportunities and foster relationships. The business conducted during the four-day event will help to support the robust return of UK and European travelers to the U.S. when the borders reopen this month.

Discover New England was joined by our UK and Ireland representatives as we held 40 one-on-one meetings with overseas travel trade.

New England continues to be of interest to UK consumers, but tour operators did express concern over the limited product available throughout New England and the possibility of not being able to meet demand. If you’d like more information on working with overseas tour operators, please reach out.

Recent Webinar

Thank you to everyone who tuned in to our webinar on October 20. Dominique Kotsias and David Venables of Travel and Tourism Marketing Ltd. (TTM), Discover New England’s trade and PR representation in the United Kingdom provided market updates and moderated a panel discussion with Kate Devereux, senior UK account manager of Delta Air Lines who provided insight on booking trends, growing consumer confidence and COVID protocols; Liz Cairns, head of product and partnerships for Flight Centre UK who shared consumer booking patterns and their plans for marketing the USA; and George Kipouros, editor-in-chief of Wanderlust who spoke of media changes during the past 18 months.

We will keep you posted on our next webinar.