Tourism Fairs 2007
International Travel Expo Hong Kong (13 – 17 June 2007)
Prague presented itself at ITE & MICE on 13 – 17 June 2007 in Hong Kong. An exposition was presented in Hong Kong as part of the year round concept to present the tourist possibilities of Prague; this exposition was specially transported to Hong Kong for this purpose.
A stand bearing a simplified picture of the astronomical clock was used to present Prague; the accompanying text was conceived so as to allow visitors to find their way about Prague geographically and historically. The stand was perfectly located at the main gate to the European Hall, opposite France and near to a small exposition about the Czech Republic. Originally, Czech Tourism had cancelled its participation in the exhibition, but in the end it decided to attend it anyway.
The first day was designed only for trade visitors. As, in fact, two exhibitions were running on the same premise at the time, which were closely linked - ITE & MICE Hong Kong – the number of trade visitors, journalists and so-called purchasers was rather high, but much lower in comparison with the number of people who visited the exhibitions in the days to follow. The Prague exposition was visited by several interesting people, including the Hong Kong Minister of Foreign Affairs. Important guests included the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Hong Kong, Mr. Rudolf Hykl, and the Consul Commercial of the Czech Republic, Mr. Jan Bezemek. Another guest was a representative of the Prague Municipality Mr. M. Cipro – Head of the Foreign Department.
The next days were very intense visitor-wise and people were extremely interested in the Prague exposition. Surprisingly enough, the general public showed a relatively extensive knowledge of Prague and was especially interested and ready to visit Prague. Clearly directed, specific questions were proof of an unusually good response. Owing to the fact that the citizens of Hong Kong do not need a visa do travel to the Czech Republic, unlike the Chinese, it was clear that many visitors are really getting ready to visit Prague and that they were searching for material and detailed information.
Even though the stand was furnished with brochures that were published in English and Chinese alike, the number of people interested was, unfortunately, so big that only a little material was left on the last day and some pieces were gone altogether. That is why we couldn’t leave any material with the Consulate of the Czech Republic, as we had originally promised. Not even one printout remained, only a few CDs – the Agent’s Manual, which had been designed for trade visitors in the field.
During the course of the exhibition, PhDr. Jaroslava Nováková gave two presentations on Prague in the form of seminars (about a half hour lecture with photographs and information about the most interesting and most important places in Prague) and these were, again, a matter of much interest. The public responded and laid questions immediately.
SMT - Paris World Tourism Fair 2007 (15 – 18 March 2007)
The Paris World Tourism Fair is not one of the biggest when it comes to surface area. Nonetheless, its visitor rate is high – a total of 102 500 ordinary and 5 300 trade visitors, including 717 journalists, visited the fair this year. A total of 217 destinations and 685 exhibitors were represented.
From the Prague point of view, the exhibition had been selected very well. Traditionally, the Czech Republic practically does not present itself here at all, as Czech Tourism concentrates on the French market on only one single project and that is the autumn exhibition in Deauville. It is also from this that a big interest, which the Prague stand traditionally experiences, ensues.
Prague presented itself in Paris by putting up a new stand which bore a graphical and decorative motive that had been created as part of the Charles Bridge anniversary. People were literally exceptionally interested in the Prague stand. They spontaneously expressed their admiration of and praised the graphics, the decorations and the selected motive – so typical for Prague.
Owing to the immensely high visit rate, all brochures and information material had been handed out and many questions had been answered and then several specific requests and detailed information had been handled. People most often asked about cultural events and offers, music productions, exhibitions and fairs, the accessibility of monuments, Czech-French relations, and the like.
The stand was visited by several interesting people, like the Consul of the Czech Republic in Paris and journalists working for the Czech daily Dnes and French newspaper Le Soir.
ITB Berlin 2007 (07 – 11 March 2007)
ITB BERLIN is the largest travel exhibition in Continental Europe. For the past fifty years, it has regularly been held for three full days in the first half of March and it is an important event for trade visitors in the Czech Republic as well as for the general public.
More than 15 000 exhibitors present their exhibitions in 26 halls and more than 8 000 journalists from all over the world attend the exhibition. These numbers are not incidental because the Germans traditionally belong amongst the greatest travelers in the world and Germany is the most important source country for many destinations, Czech Republic included. Prague regularly presents itself at the Czech Tourism stand because large stands do not fit into the hall lengthwise.
This year, the Czech Tourism stand covered an area of 250 m2 and that means that it dominated the entire hall, which taking into account it location in Central Europe is very important. The Prague Information Desk was traditionally located right next to the Czech Tourism info stand and films about Prague (a OKP MHMP production) were played all over the stand.
DESTINATIONS – The Holiday & Travel Show Birmingham 2007 (02 – 04 March 2007)
A travel exhibition took place in Birmingham, England, on 02 – 4 March 2007.
The Prague Information Service represented Prague here as part of the presentation of the Czech Republic at the Czech Tourism stand. This travel exhibition was a smaller one but not one that was visited by regional trade visitors and the general public. The overall number of visitors was bigger than expected and people were especially interested about Prague. What was nice was that many people came directly to the stand because they plan to go to Prague in the near future and it was nice that they could get information material and brochures here before their trip.
Other questions concerned the various services that we can arrange for clients in Prague – such as accommodation, guide services, cultural events, trips, etc. A very valuable piece of information was that concerning the Prague Card and that it was easy to buy at our information centers.
The exhibition was also visited by many people who had already been to Prague but even so they stopped by our stand and chatted with excitement about how beautiful Prague is. Many of them reassured us that they will definitely visit it again sometime in the future. Besides, repeated visits to Prague are one of the important goals in what concerns the promotion of the city.
BIT MILANO (22 – 25 February 2007)
The BIT Milan 2007 international travel exhibition took place on 22 – 25 February 2007 in the this time new Milan exhibition center, which taking into consideration its capacity, suits the huge interest of the Italian tourism organizers.
The Prague Information Service took care of running the Prague promotion stand, which presented the tourist possibilities of the City of Prague at this exhibition.
BIT Milan is the largest tourism fair of its kind in Italy and, on a European scale, it is one of the most important ones. It is remarkable taking into consideration its extent.
This year, it was visited by 5 % more people during the first two days which means that during the first two days it was visited by 45 520 trade visitors and 41 780 members of the general public.
The Prague stand was very much sought after during the entire four-day exhibition. Its appearance, like the Old Town Square, including the view of the Old Town Astronomical Clock, rightly attracted the attention of trade visitors as well as the general public even though there were many rivals at BIT. Individual Italian regions and towns represent themselves at BIT through very distinct and rich presentation. The Prague stand was also situated very suitably in the center of the hall dedicated to Central Europe, near the Czech Republic. Many tour operators and individuals turned to us for information and material.
Material was available in Italian; the Agent’s manual was made in English and was available in printouts and on CDs.
The stand was also visited by the Czech Ambassador in Rome, the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Italy and a European Council Coordinator, Ms Laura Moruzzi.
Salon des Vacances de Brusel (08 – 12 February 2007)
The Prague – Astronomical Clock stand was presented at an exhibition which is the largest and the most visited in Belgium and Benelux.
The exhibition in Brussels does, however, play one very important role. As the seat of the European Parliament and the center of the European Union, Brussels is a place that is visited by many tourists and trade visitors.
The Prague stand was situated in the most important place – in the European Hall – right next to the Czech Republic exposition. Even though the stand was in fact an older presentation of Prague, it was very much admired and recognized. As soon as the exhibition ended, it was transported to another exhibition (BIT Milan), except for the statute of St. John of Nepomuk, which was transported back to Prague to the Holiday World exhibition. Information material was provided in English, French and German.
It’s true that Prague doesn’t have any material in Flemish, but Czech Tourism information leaflets in Dutch were available from PIS stock.
There were very many visitors each day and the fact that people were interested in Prague can be substantiated by the many appraising reactions and specific questions.
Holiday World - Prague (15 – 18 February 2007)
Good tradition goes on.
Prague is one of the most popular European tourist destinations. More than 2 800 000 foreign visitors visited Prague last year from January to September, which continues to be more than half of all the foreign visitors who visited the entire Czech Republic. The spontaneous interest of foreign tourists is one thing, but how to maintain one’s popularity is another thing. And this applies double when it comes to tourism. And so Prague regularly presents itself through a stand big 50m2 at various world tourism exhibitions and there’s quite a few of them. The stand has already visited London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Sydney and faraway China. Yet its appearance remains the same. The first stand depicted the Old Town Square and was last time awarded several prizes last year at the tourism exhibition in Peking, China. The next stand which was thematically created to go along with last year’s Mozart’s anniversary, and which the citizens of Prague could visit at the Holiday World - Prague 2006, was awarded best stand at a prestigious exhibition in London. This year, Prague has come with yet another topic – the exhibition stand is conceived as Charles Bridge, the anniversary of which Prague is going to concentrate on very much. This stand already made its first appearance in London and it made its first appearance in Prague at the Holiday World – Prague 2007 exhibition on 15 – 18 February 2007 at the Prague Exhibition Center in Holešovice, Prague. Visitors to this exhibition could watch documentary films that focused on Prague culture and monuments; they could play memory games about Charles Bridge on touch screens, or they could search for individual statues and find out something about their history.
The stand in Prague was officially christened by Mr. Milan Richter, councilor for culture, monuments and tourism.
actb - Vienna Trade Show (28 – 31 January 2007)
The actb is a Central European tourist market place and its organizer, the Austrian National Tourist Office, brought 860 international purchasers and 200 journalists from all over the world to Europe. It needs to be said here that purchases pay the costs associated with their visiting the trade show, where as journalists are invited and their traveling and accommodation costs are fully covered.
Up until 2005, atb so used to be a tourist market place only for Austria, but this year, for the first time, it opened its doors to Hungary, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia. Czech Tourism offered its stand to individual entities under very good conditions.
The workshop was launched in the new halls of the Vienna fairgrounds, which is managed by Reed Exhibitions.
Prague presented itself at the Czech Tourism stand, which could have been organized better, but which on the other hand made it possible to communicate with those direct interested.
Many people, especially those from overseas, like Scandinavia and Great Britain, were interested about the Czech Republic and Prague. Even though the Prague stand was nothing spectacular at this trade show, several foreign journalists visited it – including journalists from China, United Arab Emirates, Japan, and USA.
Telegraph Holiday World Show Belfast (19 – 21 January 2007)
The Belfast Telegraph Holiday World Show is a regional trade show in Great Britain, nonetheless it is an important exhibition in its field. It is held in Belfast – the capital city of Northern Ireland, which is inhabited by more than one and a half million citizens.
At this trade show, Prague presented itself as the only partner of Czech Tourism at a joint stand, which was decorated by a large-sized photograph of the Old Town Square.
It caught many an eye and people were really interested in the stand. More than a thousand pieces of material provided by the Prague Information Service were handed out and that not only to the general public but also to tour operators.
In comparison to other tourism exhibitions, people didn’t tend to just collect material here – everyone who approached the stand wanted specific information and specific materials.
People were interested in Prague in two ways.
Some of them had already been to Prague and they showed their family members or friends what Prague looks like and they told them about their mostly positive impressions of their stay in our capital city.
The second group of visitors primarily wanted maps, accommodation lists and the Monuments brochure. Their interest was spurred from concrete plans to visit Prague mostly during the first half year of 2007, whether on business or privately.
The fact that JET2, a low-budget airline, operates direct flights between Prague and Belfast undoubtedly does much to develop such intentions.
The requests that we came face to face with were very interesting from the tourism point of view – mostly interested were interest groups, like landscaping groups, train transportation groups, etc.
Nonetheless, those most interested had common local needs and requirements – good quality accommodation, primarily in three-star hotels, gastronomy and the need to have a good time.
The people interested are usually family types, not groups of men who decided to go on a trip, people are mostly interested in taking a family holiday or spending an extended weekend in Prague, without the kids.
STUTTGART 2007 (13 – 21 January 2007)
This exhibition is visited by approximately 200 000 people.
Prague was represented at the stand of the Czech Republic, as one of the regions of the Czech Republic. The stand was located near to the representatives of Czech Tourism.
People at the exhibition were enormously interested in Prague. Many visitors came to get information material printed in German, many of them had specific questions that primarily concerned Prague monuments and cultural events, accommodation facilities, traffic accessibility, etc. It was clear that some people hadn’t been to Prague yet, but some of them were actually visitors that planned visit Prague again.
The Prague stand was equipped with enough material, nonetheless, some brochures, especially those about the monuments in Prague, had to be replenished by another delivery, which, apart from other things, also confirms a great interest in the Prague participation. A big help in keeping potential visitors to Prague informed was their being directed to the PIS website.