The Daily Telegraph Adventure Travel & Sports Show 2000
Tony Annis ~ 19 January, 2000
A woman strapped on to a fully rigged hand glider, a man rock-climbing a moving wall, white water rafting, walking, cycling, paragliding, any adventure you could think of could be seen and booked at this event at Olympia in central London. Adventure Travel is a fast growing sector of the holiday market and this was a great chance to check the different adventure opportunities plus the companies that provided them before you parted with your hard-earned cash.
Amongst all the sports adventure stands were others that believed in sustainable tourism and ‘Tribes’ has won an award from Tourism Concern for their belief and practice of Eco- tourism.
Wanderlust Magazine, present as always but had an extra stand in association with Body Shop where you could meet travel experts by appointment and have ten minutes of one to one advise on a specific way of travel or on a special destination.
Josie Dew and I spoke on cycle touring and with our bikes in the background one with Karrimor panniers that had been round half the world and the other with the latest Karrimor on the market; it gave the visitors a good talking point.
The Globetrotters Club had their adventure guides area and I have never seen it so busy.Dick Curtis always sets up the area in a
interesting and visual way and I hope we get many new members from the result of his and all the Globetrotters who put so much effort to help the visitors who packed the stand.
The Lectures or talks were to the usual high standard but sound and vision in rooms 1 and 2 were awful to put it politely. I longed for the quality one has become accustomed at the Globetrotters Club, due of course to the expertise of Paul Roberts. The lighting in these rooms could not be turned down and the sound on a busy Saturday afternoon at Olympia nearly drowned the speakers. This was the only negative point about the show but an important one. I listened and watched other lectures and saw and heard it from the audience point of view as well as that of a speaker.
The different traders I spoke to were very happy with the business the event was generating and I saw by the size of the crowds on Saturday afternoon that this Daily Telegraph Adventure Show, will be expanding even more in the coming years.
© Tony Annis ~ 19 January, 2000
Postscript.
Martin the organiser has told me that speaker rooms 1 & 2 will be put on the second floor and improved a 100% next year.