Feature: Snowdonia Active @ Adventure Travel & Sport Show
15/01/2003

Snowdonia Active ran a busy and successful exhibitors stand at The Daily Telegraph Adventure Travel and Sports show in the Olympia centre in London on 10-12th January 2003.
This is the biggest and most popular adventure travel and sports show in the UK with over 230 exhibitors and an estimated 29,000 visitors this year.

Spokesman Chris Wright said, “Our main aim was to raise awareness of the multitude of opportunities for outdoor activities in Snowdonia, the adventure tourism capital of the UK, and promote individual outdoor sector businesses and service providers based in Snowdonia.”

“We used the show as the public launch of our website (www.snowdonia-active.com) and our first major promotion of Snowdonia as the UK’s No. 1 Adventure destination. Our links with the Adventure Directory Internet café gave us access to one of the biggest and best-positioned stands at the show, with 8 computer terminals offering live web access. Our £2000 sponsorship of the stand represented excellent value for money. This gave us a third of the stand space positioned adjacent to the main show entrance and two dedicated snowdonia-active.com terminals. There is no doubt that we benefited greatly from the high profile and “feel good factor” that the free Internet café generated.”

"The presence of our partners from the Welsh Development Agency gave us a real boost and confirmed their support for the outdoor sector in Snowdonia."

"The show was opened to the public at 12noon and immediately the Internet café was busy and we started to welcome people to our stand. Our expert team were able to answer all these questions and even better go directly to the website and show them the providers that would be able to deliver the product or service that they were interested in."

Below is a cross section of the kinds of questions asked.

“We are going to Kilimanjaro and want do some training before we go, what can you suggest?”

“I want to take my family on an adventure holiday, I’ve never been to Snowdonia before, what can we do?”

“How long does it take to get there?”

“I am interested in paragliding, do you know of any schools in Snowdonia?”

“I have done a bit of kayaking before but I want to get better, where can I go?”

“We just like walking really, where is the best place to stay for that?”

“Where is Snowdonia?”

“Is there any mountain biking in Snowdonia?”

“What’s the difference between climbing and scrambling?”

“Is the Ironman happening again this year?”

“Can you go white water rafting in Wales?”

“I’ve been up Snowdon before, along time to, which are the other good mountains to go up?”

“What is the sea kayaking like in Snowdonia?”

“Is there an age limit for kids to do activities?”

“Are there any good campsites in Snowdonia?”


Scratch and Win!

We received prizes worth over £2000 from Snowdonia Active member businesses for a scratch card competition that was run throughout the show.
We had a number of holidays and courses to offer and a number of instant win prizes to give out on the day. It was very satisfying to see happy winners walking away with a shiny new prize.


Prizewinners:

Beth Barret-Lennard From Surry (via Australia) won the 1st prize of a white water rafting Extravaganza for her and 6 friends at the National White water centre Canolfan Tryweryn. www.ukrafting.co.uk

The superb second prizes were shared between:

Sue Lewis, from Cornwall won a 3 day all inclusive scrambling course with High Trek Snowdonia. www.hightrek.co.uk
Keith McCarthy, from Portsmouth, won a sailing weekend for two at the National Watersports centre Plas Menai. www.plasmenai.co.uk

Robert Longshaw from London (via Australia) won a weekend multi activity course at Surf-Lines Adventure. www.surf-lines.co.uk

Nadia Jennings from London won a weekend multi activity course at The National Mountain Centre Plas y Brenin. MTT www.pyb.co.uk

Instant prizes won on the day included:

Conwy School of Yachting, Conwy Marina - £50 RYA course gift voucher
Beacon Climbing Centre, Caernarfon - Family Taster + Novelty Gargoyle
DMM, Llanberis - Karabiners
Hugh Banner, Bangor - Carbon Dyneema Climbing helmet
Hugh Banner, Bangor - Alloy walking ice axe
Snowdon Backpackers - Accommodation
Y Warws, Beddgelert - Rucksack
Joe Brown, Llanberis/ Capel Curig - Rucksack
Gwynedd County Council - £50 Voucher for 14th Peak Caernarfon
Pete's Eats, Llanberis 6 x mugs
Outside, Llanberis - Rucksack
COPA, Caernarfon - BMC Safety video
Energy Cycles, Llanberis - Energy pack and drinks bottle
14th Peak, Caernarfon - Ron Hill Trackster
Blizzard Pack, Bethesda - Blizzard pack sleeping bag

A huge thank you to all those who generously contributed prizes for the show. The competition generated a great deal of interest and gave the stand a real buzz!


We have already received numerous messages from members who we represented who have had business enquiries from the show.

All in all it was a great success and we hope to build upon this positive start by visiting further outdoor trade shows around the UK.

Snowdonia Active will be present at the Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show in Birmingham in March 2003. More details will appear in the news section shortly.

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