The travel guru is the first celebrity speaker revealed for this year's exhibition

The go-to TV and radio broadcaster and senior travel editor of The Independent, Simon is the first celebrity speaker revealed for the 2019 exhibition.

He is a regular household name at the GLT Show and his seminar session at last year’s event, held in October at the NEC in Birmingham, was very popular with visitors.

Those attending this year’s exhibition can expect more expert advice from Simon, who last year shared his travel tips, including where to go outside of Europe (in light of Brexit) and essential information about passport expiry dates and travel insurance details.

He joined TV gardening expert Carol Klein and TV personality and self-confessed ‘culture vulture’ Gyles Brandreth for last year’s talks. All three were very popular, drawing in bumper crowds throughout the day.

About the show, Simon said: ”It’s a really interesting event because you get the whole spectrum; group travel organisers doing great things in the UK and overseas to visitor attractions, hotels and it’s an atmosphere which is very warm, very friendly.” Speaking at the 2018 show, Simon described it as being “great for networking, doing deals and to see what the opposition is doing.”

Find out what else Simon said about the 2018 GLT Show: 

Details of the other two speakers at the forthcoming 2019 event will be revealed in due course.

This year the market leading exhibition will be staged at a different venue, the Marshall Arena at Stadium MK, to create new opportunities for visitors and exhibitors. The annual black-tie Group Leisure & Travel Awards dinner will be held the previous evening at the nearby Hilton hotel.

Exhibition sales manager Sharon Yandell said that there had been a huge amount of interest in stand bookings so far for this year’s show, which is expected to be a sell-out.

Some of the latest exhibitors to sign up include; Alnwick Garden, Bekonscot Model Village, Brooklands Museum, DFDS Seaways and Jet2.