The International Fair of Tourism and Sailing (IFT 2004) will take place for the twenty sixth time at Belgrade Fair, on…
The International Fair of Tourism and Sailing (IFT 2004) will take place for the twenty sixth time at Belgrade Fair, on April 16 – 18, 2004.
The tourist fair events will take place in the halls 14, 1 and 5, whereas the sailing segment will take the hall 2. As compared with the last year, the capacities have been doubled and they will take about 10,000 sq. m. net area. The stand-constructed price is EUR.110.00 per 1 sq. m. and EUR.80.00 for raw space. The smallest exhibiting space shall be 12 sq. m.
Exibiting concept
IFT 2004 is a Business-to-Business trade event, oriented to a direct contact between tourist service bidders and travel agencies. Hence, we expect about 4,000 professional visitors to attend it. At the time intended for the audience, we expect visit of about 50,000 direct consumers.
The IFT 2004 participants have been divided into conceptual units. The exhibitor profile consists of national and regional tourist organizations, congress tourist bureaus, spas – health tourism, tour operators and travel agencies, tourist events and attractions, accommodation – hotels, apartments and camps, catering and hotel management, agricultural tourism, hunting and fishing, cruising, river and lake tourism, transit tourism, traffic – air, railway, bus and rent-a-car companies, youth tourism, tourist industry, financial and insurance associations, media, marketing service providers, booking systems, tourism technologies.
A special place is taken by quality and staff education as for tourism, as well as Internet technologies, various opportunities of which will be displayed during the whole fair event.
The objective
The objective is to recognize our tourist product, to display it and offer it worldwide, on one side, and to offer the worldwide tourist product to our people, on the other one. In this respect, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Services of the Republic of Serbia, along with the Serbian Tourist Organization, has supported the initiative that the IFT 2004 should be marked by new projects, which mean a break through the world. All tourist bidders of Serbia and Montenegro have been invited, as well as Associations of Travel Agencies of Serbia and Montenegro, to propose facilities and programs, and the best of them obtain a free presentation space at the Ministry`s stand.
The river and lake tourism, cruising and the Danube project as a cooperation river will take a special place at the IFT 2004, both through initiatives of the hotel-catering supply in these directions and the projects of marina and port construction.
The privatization in tourism, having included 52 hotels so far, will be one of the dominating topics, and there is the initiative to bid the already private hotels, as well as those due to bid at the tender.
Expectations
The fact that the Belgrade TOURISM FAIR has become a member of EUROPEAN TOURIST TRADE FAIR ASSOCIATION marked also the preparations for the IFT 2004.
Since the membership in this Association is enabled only to fair events with high business results, it is a great recognition and opportunity for us. If we would show the last event results in figures, we would say, 14 countries introduced themselves by direct sales and promotions at 200 stands, whereas 70 countries were offered through local tour operator programs. 61 tourist destination were displayed and 97% exhibitors expressed their pleasure with the contracted jobs in questionnaires. Thus, we joined the largest tourist fair events, like those in London, Moscow, Madrid, Thessalonica, Budapest, Lisbon and other cities. We expect the IFT 2004 to exceed these results considerably by its capacities, contents and variety of the local and foreign bids and to show the local and foreign bid as widely as possible, as well as the reasons for us to go worldwide and the world to visit us accordingly.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
