Fairs, congresses and exhibitions are a unique opportunity to present the touristic offer, meet new business partners and clients, maintain the current relations, do market research and lay the corner stone for the future marketing strategy. The table below shows some of the major fairs in the SEE region.
Exhibition | Location | Date | Venue | Exhibition space in m2 | Exhibiting countries from SEE region | Number of visitor |
METUBES | Budva, Montenegro | 10-13.
February 2010 |
Adria Fair | Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania | ||
IFT | Belgrade, Serbia | 24-28.
February 2010 |
Belgrade Fair | 32,600.00 | Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria | over 50.000 |
HOLIDAY & SPA EXPO | Sofia, Bulgaria | 25-27.
February 2010 |
National Palace of Culture | 2,650.00 | Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia | over 20.000 |
CROTOUR | Zagreb, Croatia | 14-17.
April 2010 |
Zagreb Fair | 3,000.00 | over 30.000 | |
CONVENTA | Ljubljana, Slovenia | 20-23.
January 2010 |
Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre | 1,400.00 | Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, FRYM | |
ROMANIAN TOURISM FAIR TTR | Bucharest, Romania | 25-28.
March 2010 |
Romexpo Exhibition Center | 10,000.00 | Bulgaria | Over 20.000 |
TOURISM DAYS / yet to come | Sarajevo, Bosnia And Herzegovina | 24-27.
September 2010. |
Sarajevo Fair | Expected on 3,000.00 | Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia | Cca 10.000 – 20.000 |
Despite the financial crisis and the recession in the tourist industry, the organizers say that there is a huge interest towards the exhibition. Obviously the contractors from the branch realize how important good advertisement and successful business contacts are for them to survive in these hard times. The demand for new contacts and markets is on the rise. As a witness to that is the fact that TOURISM DAYS fair is to be organized again, which is an event to see the light of the day again after six years, for the very reason of growing interest in the local and regional tourist offer and potentials alike.
Most regional fairs usually featured the leisure tourism and destination offer. However, the Adriatic Fair Management say that there is an observed growing trend in MICE tourism exhibitors, although the focus is still on summer vacations and holidays. “The development of MICE tourism is in line with the tourism development strategies in Montenegro, as well as in the region, which recognizes this segment as a potential and attractive opportunity to draw guests and generate revenues all year round. The number of hotels and agencies who present the business tourism on METUBES as the key part of their offer is constantly growing, and the investments planned in this segment show that it could be one of dominant segments of total offer in near future” says for SEEbtm, Vatroslav Belan, Marketing Manager of the Adriatic Fair. The situation is nothing different on other fairs, which give more and more importance to the business tourism segment within the total offer of a destination.