“Destination Britain Americas” (DBA) at Paradisus La Perla in the Riviera Maya. Previously branded as Destination Britain North America (DBNA) the name change reflects the addition of Brazil to the New York based Visit Britain  team’s responsibilities.

This trade event brings together qualified buyers from the travel agency community, as well as tour wholesalers, with UK based hotels, attractions and DMC’s and DMO’s. The trade show features a scheduled meetings format along with overall market updates and seminar  style presentations.

The Destination Britain America event is held every two years and for the 2025 iteration they picked a great facility. This year’s event took place 10/Sept to 14/Sept at Paradisus La Perla (Riviera Maya) which is ideally suited for conferences as it pairs flexible, professionally equipped meeting spaces with upscale all-inclusive services, beachfront location near Playa del Carmen attractions, and onsite accommodations that keep attendees together, networking, and productive

Regenerative Tourism
A highlight of the General Sessions was a talk by Gavin Landry, International Director at Visit Britain, on the topic of Regenerative Tourism. For those unfamiliar with the term, Regenerative tourism is an emerging and evolving understanding that goes beyond sustainability and prioritizes the integration of all stakeholders in its design (most importantly, the hosts), valuing collective wisdom and the co-created purpose of the destination. For a simpler way of understanding the concept, a quote from Ed Gillespie, Co-founder of Futerra and now Director of Greenpeace come to mind- “Regeneration is not about treading lightly – it’s about dancing with the place. Join the jig!

Visit Britain has been working with all stakeholders in developing a comprehensive Regenerative Tourism road map and will continue to work with all stakeholders going forward.

Visit Britain also provided some very interesting visitor information. For the full year 2024 the number of US visitors to the UK was about 5.6 million, representing about a 10% increase over full year 2023. Additionally, US visitors contributed approximately 7.3 billion UK Pounds to their economy, a 16% increase over 2023.

As any travel professional trying to work with DMO’s (Destination Marketing Organizations) in the UK can attest to, the shear number of DMO’s and their often their small size and constituencies can make it hard to amass critical information and assistance. During DBA JAXFAX was able to meet one-on-one with Patricia Yates, CEO Visit Britain and discuss the situation. Patricia was very forthcoming, noting that under her predecessor extensive research was developed that resulted in a white paper (the De Bois Review) outlining the issue with recommendations. Under her leadership they have been working on those recommendations and have created what Visit Britain calls Local Visitor Economy Partnership’s, or LVEP for short.

LVEP’s are a new robust visitor economy initiative that prioritizes sharing priorities, resources and targets among regional groupings of local organizations that operate as DMO’s. Their mission is to support and grow the visitor economy through coordinated destination management, strong stakeholder relationships and clear planning.

In May 2025 Visit Britain welcomed three new LVEPs, Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, Portsmouth & Southampton as the latest additions. They joined the program alongside the existing LVEPs. Two DDP pilot regions are also in place in North East England and the West Midlands. The pilots are a valuable opportunity to prove the DDP concept, and the impact that the model can have on growing the visitor economy, strengthening the case for future

Dark Skies Tourism
An interesting take-a-way JAXFAX found at DBA is that while much of the UK (outside of London) is becoming known for “Dark Skies” tourism, Wales is country where Dark Skies really shines. Wales features three protected International Dark Sky Places within its borders, Wales is now one of the top destinations in the world for stargazing and it is home to 30 Dark Skies Discovery sites. For those into “Noctourism”- additionally to Dark Skies, Wales also boasts great Northern Lights viewing, silent discos & candlelit concerts in Llandaff Cathedral, night kayaking in Swansea, and dino sleepovers at the National Museum in Cardiff.

Yet, Wales has much more to offer from immersive experiences, to luxury train travel (think Belmond’s new Britannic Explorer) to book festivals, to nature immersion, to Wrexham Football Club, to screen tourism with the likes of HBO’s House of the Dragon, BBC’s Doctor Who, Netflix’s Sex Education, Discovery of Witches, HBO’s Industry, Havoc, Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, Sherlock to name a few.

Of course, Wales was not alone in presenting wonderful reasons for travel advisors to send travelers to UK. But of course, the whole point of a conference like DBA is to give travel advisors and buyers the opportunity to learn first-hand, in one-on-one meetings with the premier UK suppliers showcasing both the best and the latest UK has to offer visitors. Be sure to keep a watch on when registrations become available for the next DBA in 2027.

For more information visit: https://www.visitbritain.org/destination-britain-americas-2025