The Polish Tourism Organisation (POT) recently took part in a virtual event called the EUROPE Virtual Travel Trade Show. The Polish stand also presented the offering of the Warsaw Tourism Organisation and tour operators. The purpose of the show was to reignite incoming tourism from China.

At the end of April the Polish Tourism Organisation International Office in Beijing took part in the EUROPE Virtual Travel Trade Show, a virtual trade fair organised by the European Travel Commission (ETC) and co-financed with funding from the European Union. This free event, aimed at supporting the recovery of Chinese tourist arrivals in Europe, brought together 127 European exhibitors, including 27 national and 17 regional tourism organisations, and over 250 qualified representatives of Chinese travel agencies.

As many as nine organisations from Poland took part: the Polish Tourism Organisation, the Warsaw Tourism Organisation, Furnel Travel International, JAN-POL Incoming Tour Operator, WOWland, Visit Poland DMC, Mazury Air Travel, Avena Travel, and RAPIDO bus & coach.

The event had two segments: an exhibition and meeting part, and presentations as part of the New Horizons Forum. The virtual space enabled the exhibitors to present a wide range of visual and textual information available to the visiting industry representatives for download, and also to hold individual meetings through chats and video calls, with an interpreter service at hand. In the event’s four days, the European exhibitors succeeded in holding over 1,600 business meetings with Chinese buyers, which meant an index of completed appointments of over 95%.

During the New Horizons Forum, visitors could listen to the presentations and discussions of 20 tourism sector experts on the future of Chinese tourism to Europe, with a special focus on the three travel themes promoted by the ETC: creative cities, nature, and history and heritage. The speakers included the ETC’s director, Eduardo Santander, and the president of the China Tourism Academy, Bin Dai. During the discussion panel opening the forum, the director of the POT International Office in Beijing, Zuzanna Gutkowska, accompanied by representatives of leading Chinese tour operators and ETOA Director Tom Jenkins, outlined the pandemic’s impact on future trends in tourism from China.

Be sure to visit the virtual trade show space and review the materials there, including recordings from the New Horizons Forum, which will be available to visitors until the end of the year under this link: https://thenextravelmarket.com/etc/en