This week Sep. 3-5, travel trade from Northern Norway, Finnish and Swedish Lapland have met with international tour operators in Levi, Finland, for a Visit Arctic Europe II Sales workshop. A big event with some impressive figures.
This is the second sales workshop under the Visit Arctic Europe flag, the first was held in Luleå in June 2017, and here in Levi some 200 participants – 82 tour operators and 120 suppliers – are gathered.
During Workshop days there has been more than 2 000 formal business meetings, as well as a huge number of informal meetings and networking that take place.
Main focus of this workshops is promoting a new potential season – Arctic Autumn.
And in addition to the workshop, the project Visit Arctic Europe is organizing familiarization trips for the tour operators, combining different destinations across the borders as well. Main objective of the fam-trips are to show the possibilities to travel to Arctic destination during the Autumn time. A perfect, but yet unknown, time for many of the tour operators. The Arctic autumn is full of colors, wildlife, northern lights and Arctic hospitality. During the pre and and post tours organized, some 1000 sight inspections will be made. Also impressive figures.
Daniele Zanoni from Whalesafari Andenes is saying:
-It’s been a great event so far. All the appointments I’ve had have been very relevant. Tour operators are very dedicated and really focused on potential seasons
Kirsi Jokela from Wexas Travel in UK shares Daniele’s excitement regarding the workshop:
-The quality of the suppliers is very high and it’s great to meet all Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian companies at the same event, she says
And finally:
-To be honest this has been exiting days and according to the feedback from workshop participants, the event has been successful and the interest for Arctic autumn is big. Increasing the sales all year around is a great investment in sustainability for the Arctic region, Visit Arctic Europe II Project Director Rauno Posio concludes.
More information about VAE II Sales Workshop in Levi:
Rauno Posio, project leader VAE II
Rauno.posio@lme.fi
+358 40 653 9900
