“We want to grow trade wise, but not forget the consumer-side”.
Says Anna Molander-Bry, sales manager for Matka.
This is the new goal for Matka, The Nordic Travel Fair, which now is the biggest travel trade event in the Nordic and Baltic area is to build another day on the event by making Matka Workshop Day on Wednesday January 17th to a more Global event.
Last year the event grew to 620 buyers and sellers from 54 countries of which around 30 per cent is international.
“We started it mainly together with Visit Finland to present Finland to the Nordic and Baltic buyers, but now we are trying to make it an international event, so foreign exhibitors at Matka also can meet with international buyers. If the NTO´s are coming to exhibited at Matka, it will only be a price of EUR 840 to participate at the workshop day. Our goal is, that the decision makers will spend Wednesday and Thursday (Thursday only for the travel trade) to do business and leave it to the front office staff to sell to the consumers during the weekend,” says Teemu Mikkonen from Matka.
Matka Workshop Day also supports Finland’s outbound tourist industry, offering Finnish tour operators an easy and cost-effective way to obtain information about the products and services of foreign tourism businesses, tour operators and other service providers in the travel industry, at the Global Workshop. The buyer-representatives of tour operators can participate in Matka Workshop Day free of charge, and travel agency professionals working in all areas of the business can also come and check out, for example, the offerings of tourism companies.
Matka Pro is the new name of the Matka Nordic Travel Fair professional and B2B exhibitor program.
Teemu Mikkonen “Our solutions, services and platforms for travel trade professionals and b2b exhibitors all stand under the Matka Pro umbrella. You might have seen these logo’s during MATKA 2017.Our b2b solutions: Matka Workshop Day, Matka Business Forum and the actual seminar program for trade professionals, all received the Matka Pro prefix to them. Seminar program is produced again in cooperation with the Association of Finnish Travel Agents AFTA.
As mentioned, we launched Matka Pro in January 2017 in a preliminary state to receive feedback from trade visitors and exhibitors. After the 2017 event, we have decided to further develop Matka Pro to be a stable part of Matka.
With Matka Pro we aim to sharpen and develop the brand image of Matka Nordic Travel Fair’s professional side and to provide a platform for travel trade professionals and b2b exhibitors to develop their professional expertise, grow business and network in a productive and efficient manner.”
Matka has already three new exhibitors, who will be joining all five days, so that buyers from the Scandinavian and Baltic market can meet the National Tourism Organizations, but also representatives from the private incoming industry, so deals can be made at the fair.
It is one country from Asia, one from Africa and one from Europe.
Last year more than 1000 exhibitors from 80 different countries ensure an impressive start for the travel year. The trade is welcome Wednesday and Thursday, while the event will open its doors to the general public on Friday morning.
Annually the event is visited by more than 50.000 consumers and almost 20.000 travel trade professionals.
DANISH TRAVEL SHOW
Spain the preferred destination for the most of the Nordic travellers, is going to be the new partner-country, when Danish Travel Show opens February 23 in Herning in Denmark.
Anders Ladefoged in charge of the travel show:
“Spain is the most popular sun-destination from alle the Nordic countries. They will present all the possibilities of holiday in their country, and be present two places at the travel show. Both in the European Hall and in the golf-hall too. We have also prepared a Spanish restaurant, so the visitors can have a taste of Spanish dishes.”
The Danish Travel Show also hase the most important Asian destination present at the show. China will be there, Thailand will be there and India will have a larger booth than before, now that Air India has landed both in Stockholm and Copenhagen.
PATA will probably again be the most “lively” area with music, dances and food. The Carribbean area has decided not to be divided in to countries, but will have an open space presentation.
Germany Tourism is not allowed to be present at the fair, but will be present at the fair anyway. The travel show has been able to persuade all the former individual exhibitors to come again.
As usual Billund Airport will bring all the airlines, that land at the airport.
TRAVEL MATCH NORWAY
Travel Match is moving away from Reiseliv and back to Oslo Congress Center to make it a successful B2B event.
Arne Sundt-Bjerck:”It is the first travel trade event of the year, and there was too many thing annoying the event, so we decided to move it back to midtown Oslo. This also means that we in January 11th will have 13 meeting slots instead of 11 last times. We hope this will fulfil the wishes from the buyers and sellers. This means that Reiseliv for the consumers will be on January 12-13-14 of January.”
And not to forget in the evening of January 11 the Norwegian Grand Travel Award presentation takes place.
TravelMatch is a professional B2B workshop being organized for the 7th time in 2018, owned jointly by ANTOR, Discover America, PATA and Virke (the travel agents association). TravelMatch is a meeting point for Norwegian and international travel businesses, with opportunities to exchange information and enter into commercial agreements for outbound travel from Norway.
TravelMatch is a professional B2B workshop organized for the first time in 2012 and owned jointly by ANTOR, Discover America, PATA and Virke (the travel agents association). TravelMatch is a compact event, where suppliers of all kinds of travel related products & services from within and outside Norway have the opportunity to meet with buyers and distributors in the Norwegian market. The event is based on pre-scheduled meetings, but there are also with some open slots and the chance to mingle with free float workshop meetings.
Arne Sundt-Bjerck: “As we prefer to have a good balance, there will only be a limited number of partners from the same country or region. TravelMatch reserves the right to select the partners that will be accepted. Our aim is to have relevant sellers that will attract the interest of the buyers and that will cover a wide spectrum, with regard to both the type of operation and the geographical area being covered.”
