2nd-3rd June 2025
Intercontinental London – The O2
The travel landscape is moving at a tremendous speed. Now more than ever, travel professionals need to have their finger on the pulse when it comes to trends, insights and consumer demands to ensure that they are future ready as well as being able to respond quickly and efficiently.
Destinations Exchange Europe is the premium event organised by the European tourism association (ETOA) in collaboration with City Destinations Alliance (City DNA). Taking place in London over two days, it serves up a range of pop-up experiences – including knowledge sessions, commercially focussed meetings, networking opportunities and actionable insights, which ensure innovation and collaboration when it comes to product development and operational issues.
Amongst other areas, the practice of optimising capacity whilst driving innovation in new product will be explored. Cultural tourism continues to be an important part of Europe’s visitor economy long-term, and a range of practical solutions is required to make this happen.
Tom Jenkins, CEO of ETOA said:
"Destinations Exchange Europe provides a mix of commercial meetings with strategic insights. ETOA arranges one-to-one meetings between operators and those who wish to deal with them, and supplements this with discussions on how Europe’s cities and regions can develop their offer.
The industry is changing at speed. The commercial and operational environment is in flux. Cities are closing themselves to groups, placing restrictions on rental accommodation and imposing tourism taxes. Markets are in flux. Distribution is changing. In these situations, it is important to keep everyone informed.
We look forward to meeting with established and new contacts at Destinations Exchange Europe 2025."
ETOA is the trade association for better tourism in Europe, working with policy makers towards a fair and sustainable business environment. Along with 1,100 members serving 63 origin markets they are a powerful voice at local, national, and European levels. Their member reach includes tour and online operators, intermediaries, tourist boards, hotels, attractions, and a range of tourism providers – from global brands to local businesses.
ETOA also works with partners and members to serve up a range of on-the-point reports and insights that help businesses to understand the European travel landscape more deeply.
City Destinations Alliance is a knowledge sharing network for cities and urban regions working to unfold the potential of the visitor economy.
Why Destinations Exchange Europe?
At Destinations Exchange Europe, collaboration is everything and destinations and tourism suppliers have the perfect base to meet with international buyers to develop products, itineraries, and business plans with focus on operators and tourism buyers serving intra-European and international clients.
Long-haul cultural tourism complements domestic European seasonality and spend, but it also adds competitive pressure to current capacity. Anti-tourism sentiment is growing and there is a strategic requirement to address cause effect to make the case for better tourism.
With a strong focus on maximising mutual benefit and minimising adverse impact, Destinations Exchange Europe 2025 provides ETOA’s diverse network of operators, DMOs and their supply chain with the opportunity to develop and share innovative ideas.
Prime location
This year, the event moves to Intercontinental London – the O2 – a luxurious venue – easily navigable and situated in a central location.
The event has been diligently organised to ensure that buyers can connect with chosen suppliers in a time efficient way, due to geographically arranged areas, which makes finding the next appointment easy.
Destination specific
For 2025, the focus will be on European destinations and the many projects and campaigns that have been undertaken to improve both locals’ and visitors’ experience as well as the perception of cities and countries.
Delegates and visitors will get the opportunity to hear firsthand about successful and innovative campaigns that have helped destinations to achieve stand out and success. There will also be an opportunity to discuss how planning and optimising key learnings can create successful campaigns and initiatives.
Crucial areas of best practice destination management will also be explored including what makes cities and regions truly attractive to a global audience, what is the benchmark of destination management and how national and local collaboration can result in success.
There will also be an Operators Panel on product development - the perfect opportunity for operators and DMCs to connect best practice to market ready products to optimise ideas and ensure that these are implemented with minimum fuss and maximum return on investment.
Even though so much business is conducted online, the power of in-person events cannot be underestimated. During and after the event, attendees can also join a variety of networking opportunities.
In today’s travel environment, timely information, an understanding of insights and trends and the ability to collaborate with the right people and businesses are crucial. So is ensuring that you’re able to get all these elements in a time and cost-efficient way.
With a definitive appointments programme, discussion programmes and numerous networking opportunities, Destinations Exchange Europe 2025 is your ticket to successful B2B networking and meetings which ensure that the industry is future-ready.
For more information, visit Destinations Exchange Europe 2025.
