The first two months of each year are a busy time for anyone
interested in travel shows in London. In early January, we had the
Daily Telegraph Travel Show that was held at Olympia. It was huge and
included attractions such as a revolving climbing wall and a large
inflatable pool for would-be scuba divers to try out their under
water skills. The Globetrotters Club was well represented, as always
– thanks to Dick for organizing the stand. A large number of
Globetrotter members turned out on Saturday and Sunday to offer free
travel advice to members of the public who were thinking of
travelling; Central and South America seemed to be extremely popular
planned travel destinations. All the usual adventure and overland
companies were represented.

A couple of weeks after the Daily Telegraph Show, there was the
Destinations travel show, also held at Olympia. This is more an
opportunity for tourist offices to offer brochures and advice to help
people plan their trips to specific countries rather than longer term
round the world trips.

The final show, the Independent Travellers World show is usually
in late February. It was again held at the much smaller venue, the
Business Design Centre in Islington. Compared to last year's
effort, (and previous years, which, quite frankly were awful!) this
show was far, far better. The emphasis was mostly on independent and
backpacker travel with fewer tourist offices being represented – more
overland truck companies, gap year organizations etc. There were
loads of freebies – these included baseball hats, key rings, free
T-shirts, lots of sweeties (candies) and mugs from shipping insurance
companies!