Official UK procurement notice
250254 - Preliminary Market Engagement for Travel Management Services
Authority: Queen's University Belfast (Education)
What is being bought
Published requirement descriptionQueen’s University Belfast (hereafter referred to as “Queen’s”) is seeking to engage with suppliers to support a Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) exercise for the provision of travel management services.
The Travel Management Contract value is estimated to be c. £8m p.a. However, this should be regarded as an estimate only, is subject to demand and business need, is not binding on the University, nor deemed to be a condition of Contract or a guarantee of minimum demand or uptake.
The purpose of this PME exercise is to gain a better understanding of the travel management solutions available in the market, explore options for a specific solution for Queen’s, understand costs / commercial models, and support a potential future procurement exercise. The PME process will provide interested suppliers with the opportunity to obtain further information on Queen’s requirements and provide Queen’s with the opportunity to obtain feedback from the marketplace.
This notice is for early market engagement only. It is not a call for competition and Queen’s is not seeking formal offers at this point. Participation in this exercise will not preclude any supplier from any future procurement, nor provide any supplier with an advantage or disadvantage from any future procurement.
Queen’s may choose not to conduct a procurement subsequent to this PME process or may identify alternative routes to market, such as national frameworks, where deemed appropriate.
Queen’s will not be liable for any costs or expenses whatsoever resulting directly or indirectly from a supplier’s participation in PME.
Request for Information (RFI) Questionnaire
Queen’s is not looking for full supplier tenders at this stage but would like suppliers who wish to participate in the PME process to complete and returning the Request for Information (RFI) questionnaire enclosed as Appendix 1.
Responses must be submitted via the In-Tend Electronic System.
CPV: Business travel services · Travel management services
The lotProcurement structure
single lot · no lot value publishedPipeline intelligence · planning stage: how this market runs before the tender is published
How Queen's University Belfast buys Travel agency and similar services (CPV 6351), and who usually turns up
Queen's University Belfast’s own published record, next to the published market for the same work. Frameworks and DPS are kept out: they attract a different number of bids. Whole-market view: Travel agency and similar services (CPV 6351) →
How the contest usually goes
Winner shares use published awards; bid and price charts use contested lots.
i
How often small and medium firms win.
Share of awards where the winner’s size is known.
The counts under this question show how many awards have a known supplier size.
Small firms have won here. Neither number says whether you qualify; it describes who has been winning.
i
How often local firms win similar work.
Winners with a registered address in the delivery region, out of awards with a known address.
Here, local means the winner is registered in the region where that contract was delivered.
A local branch does not count if the registered address is elsewhere.
Most of this buyer’s recorded winners are registered outside Northern Ireland.
i
How long buyers here take to decide after bids close.
Middle value in days from the deadline to the first award notice, on competitions that published both dates.
Only decided tenders count, so slow ones still waiting are not in.
Half of these awards were announced within 43 days of the bid deadline.
i
How often work is awarded with no recorded rival.
Direct awards and tenders where every published lot count shows one bid.
Both shares are minimums: some awards have no bid count.
Thin markets produce this too; it is not proof of a tailored specification.
Direct awards or one recorded bid are common here. Check the route before spending time on a bid.
How many bids did past lots attract?
i
How many bids past lots received.
Each colour is a bid-count range. Only competed lots with a published count are included.
Past bids do not predict this tender.
1 bid41% / 25%
2–344% / 25%
4–610% / 31%
7+5% / 19%
How did awards compare with estimates?
i
Where winning prices landed against estimates.
Each colour shows awards below, close to or above the published estimate, one lot at a time.
Past prices are a guide, not a bid price.
Below estimate28% / 13%
Within ±2%24% / 63%
Above estimate48% / 25%
Assess each lot i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
i
What past awards tell you about each lot.
See the forecast, this buyer’s earlier suppliers and firms with relevant wins.
No supplier is confirmed as a bidder.
Open a lot for its forecast, this buyer’s previous supplier and possible competitors, from published award history, not a bid list
Lot #1CPV 6351Estimate not published
i
How many bids this lot may attract.
The forecast uses similar past competitions. The bar shows either that forecast or past bid counts; the line below says which.
Each lot shows its own forecast based on its own category; forecasts for different lots of the same notice are not comparative. The bar shows 16 past lots.
A forecast, not a list of bidders.
1 bid25%
2–325%
4–631%
7+19%
i
Where the award price may land.
The forecast uses similar awards and the buyer’s estimate. The band covers the middle half of likely prices.
No comparable awards for this lot yet.
A statistical guide from past awards, not a price to bid.
Who has supplied this buyer on similar work? i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
i
Who has done similar work for this buyer.
Past contracts are matched by buyer, title and type of work.
A past supplier may not bid again.
No earlier contract of this buyer matches this lot on the published record.
Who could compete for this lot? i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
i
Who could compete for this lot?
Firms with relevant past wins. On a framework, we show firms on that agreement.
None is confirmed as a bidder.
Candidate suppliers for this notice have not been worked out yet, so this is not a verdict that nobody fits.
About this data
- Source. Official UK public procurement notices (Find a Tender), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New notices arrive through the day; the figures are rebuilt nightly.
- Two views, kept apart. The authority’s own track record and the wider market for the same kind of work sit side by side and are never mixed. Where the local picture is too thin, a figure widens to a broader market and says which one it used.
- Forecasts are labelled. The price forecast and its range, possible competitors and the earlier-work matches are our estimates from past awards: not published facts, not win chances and not price advice. Official notices do not say who is bidding.
- Every figure shows what it rests on. Not every notice publishes a bid count, a value or a delivery region, so each figure carries the number of records behind it, and one built on few records is marked as such. The on a figure explains it; the counting rules are in the methodology. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Procedure terms & legal framework
From the official record- Legal basis
- UKPGA · 2023/54 Procurement Act 2023
- Procurement category
- Services
- Notice status
- Planned procurement
- Procurement threshold
- Unspecified in notice
- Regulatory regime
- Standard
- Commercial structure
- Stand-alone contract (no framework)
- Competition type
- Competitive procedure
- GPA / WTO covered
- Unspecified in notice
- Recurring procurement
- Unspecified in notice
- First published
- 8 Jul 2026, 16:07 BST
- Last source update
- 8 Jul 2026, 16:07 BST
- Authority reference
250254 - PME- FTS notice number
2026/S 000-064369- Latest notice
- Preliminary market engagement notice (UK2)
- Classification (CPV)
- Delivery area
- Not published
- Official registry OCID
ocds-h6vhtk-06c6bdFind a Tender
How it was run
Official notice- Submission deadline
- —
Timeline
8 Jul 2026 → 1 Jul 2027 · 4 dates- Planning notice published106 days ago8 Jul 2026, 16:07 BST
- Market engagement78 days ago5 Aug 2026, 23:59 BST
Suppliers must register at Queen's e-tendering portal which you can find at the link below.
in-tendhost.co.uk/queensuniversitybelf… ↗
You can access the PME documents by searching “Tenders” – then “Current Tenders".
If you wish to participate in the PME process, please complete and return Appendix 1 - Request for Information (RFI) Questionnaire, by the submission deadline. Responses must be submitted via the In-Tend System.
Please complete each dropdown response box. Written responses should be as brief as possible – bullet point answers are preferred. Responses must not exceed the designated word count for responses, where applicable.
- Tender notice expected36 days ago16 Sept 2026, 23:59 BST
- Today22 Oct 2026
- Contract startsin 251 days1 Jul 2027, 00:00 BST
Notice history
1 event · 1 release on Find a Tender- Preliminary market engagement notice published8 Jul 2026, 16:07 BSTUK2
Commercial outcome & contract awards
Pipeline notice- Awards (0)
- No award published
- Contracts (0)
- No contract published
- Bid statistics
- No aggregate bid statistics published
Contracting authority & participating public bodies
Official documents & specifications (1)
Official links; attachments are not copiedNotices published for this procedure
- Preliminary market engagement notice Preliminary market engagement notice on Find a Tender