Rise in the number of foreign visitors

Following the first two days of the UK garden and leisure show Glee in Birmingham, it looked as if last year’s visitor total of around 26,000 can probably be equalled this year. Trade Promotion Services (TPS), the organiser of the event, provisionally registered a significant increase in foreign visitors, while there has been a downturn in the number of domestic visitors so far. Petindex in particular, the pet product show integrated into Glee, has once again proved to be a magnet for visitors. The closing report giving the final visitor totals will probably not appear until the end of next week, according to the organisers. David Metcalfe, the managing director and chairman of TPS, has announced the biggest marketing budget so far in the history of Glee for next year, when there will be no Gafa show in Cologne.