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MATKA Nordic Travel Fair, which took place at the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre 19-22 Jan 2012, gathered the world under one roof for four days. The event had exhibitors from over 70 countries. The fair’s 500 exhibitors also presented a miniature version of Finland. More than 71,000 visitors acquainted themselves with travelling opportunities.
This year’s new resorts promoted at the MATKA Nordic Travel Fair included, for example, Madagascar and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. As regards domestic locations, Lahti and Tampere made an impressive return to the fair. Visitors come to the fair mostly to get more information regarding overseas destinations and to learn about new destinations. According to a visitor survey by TNS Gallup, four out of five visitors also stated travel offers as one of the main reasons for visiting the event.
"The strong point of the MATKA Nordic Travel Fair is its internationality. The fair provides an opportunity to get to know international destinations through local people,” describes Sales Manager Inna-Pirjetta Lahti from the Finnish Fair Corporation.
In recent years, Croatia has become an increasingly popular destination among Finnish travellers. Tourist office representative Paul Sikic estimates that around 35,000 Finns visited Croatia last year.
”Compared to other Scandinavian countries, Finland is a small but growing market area for us. Finns seem to already know a great deal about our country, and during the fair we are often asked about accommodation and sight-seeing tips. The MATKA Nordic Travel Fair is also participated by tour operators, which is very important to us,” says Sikic.
Travel fever running high among visitors
According to the visitor survey by TNS Gallup, around 40% of the visitors intend to travel more this year than in the 1-3 previous years. Around half of the visitors plan to travel as much as before. There were some travel bookings made during the fair, most of which were trips abroad. Over a third of the visitors intend to book a trip shortly thanks to the fair promotions.
”We had 10 sales counters that had steady queues. Most of our customers made bookings already during the fair, which means that our promotion items were well targeted. I have a feeling that we are going to beat last year’s sales records,” says Marketing Coordinator Tuula Suomela, who was in charge of the Aurinkomatkat fair stalls.
The Caravan fair was also organised at the same time as the MATKA Nordic Travel Fair, exhibiting travel vehicles and related services. The Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre displayed all of the top travelling vehicle and caravan manufacturers. The Caravan fair had almost 5,000m of exhibition space, around one thousand square meters more than in the previous year.
The next event to be held at the Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre is the MP 12 Motorcycle Show on 2-5 February 2012. The MATKA Nordic Travel Fair will be held again on 17-20 January 2013.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
