The Moodie Davitt Report: “Overwhelmingly positive reaction” to inaugural Virtual Travel Retail Expo

The Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo appears to be an unqualified success on every level.

By the numbers, the organizers report that participation figures as of Oct. 17, included 4,373 unique visitors across the 5 days, 50% visitor traffic retention from day 1 to day 5, 124 stands and suites, with over 183,611 impressions, 165,000 stand content clicks, 42 Knowledge Hub sessions with 30,051 views, and 32 Experience Hub sessions with 9,147 views. These numbers will be rising since the platform will remain up for another 30 days.

As we mentioned last week, the ground-breaking event was informative, creative, fun and effective. Although virtual, it allowed the industry to gather together and converse in real time. It also had heart. In addition to the participation numbers, the Virtual TR Expo raised thousands for several charities.

From Smiles to Trees

Pledging to fund a cleft operation through Smile Train for every paid exhibitor at the event, the Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo donated US$28,000 to fund 112 cleft operations.

Through the Trinity Forest Project, soft launched at The Trinity Forum in Doha last year, the organizers also pledged to plant a tree for every visitor to the Virtual Travel Retail Expo. This is powered by One Tree Planted, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. According to the Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt, this one visitor = one tree formula translates into 4,250 trees being planted at this time.

 

WiTR charity funded

FILTR, the Moodie Davitt Report’s partner in curating the Virtual Travel Retail Expo, also donated US$16,000 to ImpactHK, the designated charity this year for the Women in Travel Retail networking group.

Speaking at a virtual meeting of WiTR members on October 15, FILTR Operations Director Lucy Hillyard said: “We really felt that the ImpactHK message of #kindnessmatters has never seemed more apt than this year. We wanted to step up and do something to help.”

 

30-day encore, new date for ‘21

The live event, which took place from October12-16, is being followed-up with a 30-day ‘encore’ period. Exhibitors and visitors are being granted access to all areas of the Expo platform, including the stands and suites in the Exhibition Hub and on-demand sessions of the Knowledge and Experience Hub, without additional charge.

In the first few days of the encore, the Moodie Davitt organizers report that hundreds of industry executives are returning to the Expo to pick up from last week.

The Moodie Davitt Report has announced plans to build on the success of the inaugural Virtual Travel Retail Expo with a bigger and more evolved event in the second half of 2021, at a date still to be determined.