This year bloggers are also invited from Asia. These special guests are flown to Helsinki by Finnair, one of the key partners in the project. Video bloggers are also invited this year to create an illuminating video of the NBE.
In January the Nordic Travel Fair Matka brings 40 international travel bloggers to Finland and Helsinki. The Nordic Bloggers’ Experience is a one of kind event in Finland and it is organised by Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre, in cooperation with Visit Finland and Visit Helsinki.
The first Nordic Bloggers’ Experience (NBE) filled the social media with Finnish winter exotics. Individual postings amounted to over 150 and nearly 1,000 pictures were uploaded to Instagram tagged with #nbeFinland. Over 15 million people were also reached on Twitter. The NBE got recognition also in Finland as it won the first place in the Finnish Championships of Municipal Marketing.
German travel blogger Sebastian Canaves-Borner again brings his expertise to the project. His credentials include organising similar programme for bloggers at the world’s largest travel event ITB Berlin. The producer of the project is CEO Inna-Pirjetta Lahti from Innastus Oy.
This year bloggers are also invited from Asia. These special guests are flown to Helsinki by Finnair, one of the key partners in the project. Video bloggers are also invited this year to create an illuminating video of the NBE.
Bloggers can apply for the NBE until the end of September at nbe.fi. Last year approximately 130 bloggers applied and this year 40 are chosen. In addition to international bloggers, 10 Finnish ones are chosen to act as hosts and to help in providing accurate content.
The best of Finland and nearby regions
The programme contains different types of trips around Finland and countries nearby. Bloggers visit places like the cities of Mikkeli, Porvoo and Turku, ski and sports centre Saariselka in Lapland, the capital of Sweden Stockholm, and the national park Nuuksio either before or after the main event, the Nordic Travel Fair Matka. The trips are divided into three categories created by Visit Finland: Silence Please, Cultural Beat, Wild & Free. These trips present the best of Finland both in the countryside and cities, and from the Finnish food culture to different types of saunas. Many local organisations of the destinations are also involved in the project.
- Last time the NBE was a true success story. The city of Porvoo got good publicity around the world and the bloggers are still in touch with us and comment our pictures on Instagram and Facebook. The NBE also attracted attention locally, states Marketing Manager Sari Myllynen from Visit Porvoo.
At the Nordic Travel Fair Matka the bloggers get a unique opportunity to meet travel professionals around the world. In addition to that, they can take part in the extensive seminar and training programmes. In Helsinki the bloggers get acquainted with the local food culture with a new food map and, for example, receive the most recent information on making appealing videos. The bloggers also get the opportunity to see Helsinki on their own.
- These bloggers promote Helsinki around the world. They are the forerunners of travelling and people follow their lead. With the help of the NBE we have created a network of bloggers which benefits us also in other projects, summarises Social Media Coordinator Elisabeth Heinrichs from Visit Helsinki.
Radisson Blu is one of the key partners and accommodates bloggers during their stay in Helsinki in its four hotels. Each hotel has its own identity and the bloggers are challenged to capture those during their stay.
- This type of cooperation gives us an exciting opportunity to bring the work that we have done to create these identities to life through the bloggers’ experiences and postings. Visibility in different online search engines is vital for hotels and this new form of cooperation with the bloggers will no doubt give us more visibility both internationally and in Finland, describes Marketing Manager Marileea Jarnefelt from Radisson Blu Hotels Finland.
The Nordic Travel Fair Matka is the largest travel event in Northern Europe. It is held at Messukeskus Helsinki, Expo and Convention Centre, 15-18 January 2015.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
