Rotterdam & The Hague recently hosted one of Europe’s first Carbon Neutral fam trips for 22 UK agency buyers.

As part of the initiative for this trip, The Hague Convention Bureau and Rotterdam Marketing have carbon offset all the CO2 generated from delegate’s flights, as well as the ground programme - a total of 3 tonnes of CO2.

“We believe we are one of the first organisations to take the initiative of making a fam trip Carbon Neutral”, says their UK Account Manager Paul Swain.

“The Dutch have always been progressive in their environmental awareness and this is just one example of how we can reduce our impact, as well as hasten the positive changes being adopted by the industry to reduce our carbon footprints”.

The Carbon offset will be made via the CarbonNeutral Company.

A cross section of the UK events industry took part in the trip, including buyers from Grass Roots, Banks Sadler, Universal CIT, MCI UK, Maritz Travel, Expotel, Gemini, The Choice Group, and many other well known names in the industry.

The programme took in highlights of both Rotterdam & The Hague, aimed at showcasing both cities as event destinations. Feedback from buyer delegates has been very positive.

Alistair Cotton from Gemini commented “it certainly opened my eyes to The Hague and Rotterdam as they have a lot more to offer than I expected.”

Maritz’s Lindsey Spiers said of the trip “both cities certainly have great potential for meetings and events.”

Graham Fletcher of Rede2 also felt he had experienced “an excellent, informative trip on both Rotterdam and The Hague”.

“The sheer number and quality of buyers attending this years fam trip is testament to the momentum The Hague & Rotterdam are building up as viable destinations” adds Paul Swain.