Trade shows · 8 min read
How to follow up after a travel trade show
What should I do in the week after a travel trade show?
Sort the conversations into the ones that asked for something specific, the ones that were warm but vague, and the ones that were only politeness — then reply to the first group within a day, while you can still remember the detail that makes the message worth reading. Most of what is lost after a show is lost in that first week, not on the floor.
The problem with trade shows is not the meetings. It is the fortnight afterwards, when a hundred conversations have compressed into a stack of cards and a vague sense that several of them went well.
Rework, writing about travel trade shows, put it as a "stack of business cards and vague promises to stay in touch" — and observed teams who had "closed maybe two deals from 87 conversations" six months later. Their conclusion is the useful part: "Most leads are lost here, not on the show floor."
Sort before you write anything
The instinct is to send one message to everybody. It is the wrong instinct, because the three groups you met need different things and sending them the same thing tells all of them they were not really listened to.
- Asked for something specific. A rate sheet, an allocation, a FAM place, an introduction to a colleague. These are not leads, they are obligations. They go first.
- Warm but unresolved. A real conversation with no ask attached — the operator who is "looking at East Africa for 2027" but has nothing on paper. These need a reason to speak again, not a follow-up.
- Politeness. Someone took a card at the stand. Say nothing, or say one line. Sending a proposal to this group is how a stand becomes a reputation for spam.
The sort is the whole job. Everything below assumes you have done it, and none of it works if you have not.
The first group: reply inside a day
Rework describes a "24-hour response protocol" for hot leads as non-negotiable, and in the travel trade the reason is specific rather than general: the buyer met eleven other people that day who also promised to send something. The first credible document in the inbox sets the terms of the comparison.
Send what was actually asked for, not a brochure. If they asked for net rates, send net rates. If you cannot send the real thing yet, say when — a dated promise is worth more than a holding email that says you enjoyed meeting them.
- Name the conversation, not the show. "You mentioned the shoulder-season gap on your Kenya programme" beats "great to meet you at WTM".
- Attach the one document. Not four.
- Put the next step in your own hands: "I will send the updated allocation on Friday" rather than "let me know if you need anything".
The second group: give them a reason, not a nudge
The warm-but-vague conversations are where most of the value sits and where most of it evaporates, because there is nothing to send and so nothing gets sent. A follow-up that says "just checking in" is asking the buyer to do the work of remembering why they were interested.
Better to wait a fortnight and arrive with something: a property that fits what they described, a date for a familiarisation trip, a change in the product that is relevant to their gap. In the trade this is a FAM — the ETAG glossary defines it as a "hosted trip to allow buyer to experience relevant tourism product first hand" — and an invitation is a far stronger second contact than a reminder.
Write it down while it is still true
The detail that makes the first message land — the shoulder-season gap, the colleague who actually signs off, the fact that they hated the last property you put them in — has a shelf life of about two days. Hotel sales teams call these logged actions "traces", and the reason the word exists is that nobody remembers them otherwise.
Whatever you use, capture the conversation before you leave the hall or on the flight home. A photograph of the card with thirty seconds of context attached is worth more than a perfectly typed record you never get round to writing.
Then close the loop with the people you represent
If you represent properties or a destination, the show is also something you have to account for. That is a separate job and it is the one most often left undone — see the post-show report below.
RepBud logs a conversation from a photograph of a card, a typed line or a forwarded email, files it against the right contact and keeps the next step on a dated list. It is free to start, with no card. RepBud is designed to assist, not replace, your professional judgement.
