Did I tell you we are becoming fair pros?
Well, you might have noticed something on our real time updates on Instagram while experiencing The International Tourism & Environment Fair 2022 at Expocity Albania. The event that brought together various tourism businesses from the Balkans and further such as: Albania, Kosovo, Italy, Montenegro etc. Bad news: It’s already over and you have no chances of visiting it anymore. Good news: There was so much to learn and so many people to meet and share respective projects. Further more, have a look at what happened during 2-4 June at Expocity and why we are really happy to have been a part of it.
INTERNATIONAL B2B & B2C MEETINGS
The were several countries represented in the fair such as Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and of course Albania and Kosovo. Each exhibitor had the chance to meet others participating the fair during the B2B meeting organised by Expocity during the first two days. These meetings resulted very fruitful since there were various new collaborations starting at these international tables.
PROFESSIONAL WORKSHOPS & FORUMS
The fair organised tourism workshops to help businesses learn and improve their services by applying modern methods to building the right product, the right communication and get better sales. The digitalisation was a big part of the discussions and a few good recommendations were brought up, suggesting for another Balkan fair that would unite the tour operators from different countries and bring them to new collaborations.
THE ALBANIAN MINISTRY OF TOURISM & ENVIRONMENT
Deputy Minister of Tourism and Environment, Mrs. Almira Xhembulla attended the fair on its third day to hear the challenges and issues that hotels, restaurant and travel agencies face at the beggining of the summer season. During the first two days, there were also other representatives of the Ministry that participated forums and discussions with the fair participants sharing the new perspective of the Albanian tourism.
ALBANIA360 & THE NEW PROJECT WITH THE GUESTHOUSES
This is the stand where we welcomed most of our visitors and this is us! We are glad to have had such an opportunity to present our tourism blog and talk about our new project in helping the guesthouses around Albania deliver a better service, market their products online and get more clients throughout the year. If you have a guesthouse and haven’t been in touch with us yet, please contact us soon.
GIST – THE ITALIAN MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE
The Tirana International Tourism Fair represented a great opportunity for GIST Gruppo Italiano Stampa Turistica (Italian Tourist Press Group), to make all the Balkan countries aware of their potential and identify strengths to boost the tourism sector, which has been largely penalised due to the pandemic. It is GIST’s intention, as a media representative, to give greater visibility to Balkan tourism in order to introduce new destinations toward italian tourists.
GIST, acronym of Gruppo Italiano Stampa Turistica, is a national association established in 1991 and is the most historical and important Italian association of journalists specialised in the tourism sector. Gist members are Italian journalists with different roles: editors, editors-in-chief, ordinary editors, freelancers, photographers, press officers, guidebook authors, registered with the National Order of Journalists who regularly and continuously cover tourism in the various media for which they work: daily and periodical press, web, radio and TV.
THE ADVENTURE TOURISM WAS HIGHLY ENCOURAGED
Several tour operators exposed their best adventure options such as speedboats, rafting boats, hiking and camping equipments. Those that couldn’t bring their best assets such as submarines, they provided videos during the whole fair and we had a glance of how it’s like to touch the bottom of the sea without having to swim. We don’t like a vacation without adventure and we are always informing you about the new fun things to do in Albania. This fair gave us a lot of new insights about the entertaining experiences by the sea and in the mountains too.
STUDENTS FROM AROUND ALBANIA PARTICIPATED A CONTEST
The energy and motivation of the students is like no other and it was greatly welcomed during the fair with an informative and fun contest. The students were representing high schools like “Hermann Gmeiner” ICT Vocational High School, Vocational High School Information and Communication Technology, Korca and other Vocational tourism schools and training centers. They also had a chance to present their projects to several businesses.
KIDS
BROUGHT THEIR SPARKLE IN A UNIQUE WAY
The little friends of “ITE DAYS” visited the fair, surprising all with their folk costumes, their energy and curiosity. They visited most of the tents, always curious to know about everything exposed and sometimes running around the explore each angle of the Expocity showroom. They learned more about Albania, it’s best all summer destinations and talked about where they would like to go with their families this summer. This fair gave them a few good hints to recommend to their parents.
A TRADITIONAL MUSIC & DANCE SHOW
Albanian music and dance is always an important part of our country’s touristic package and it couldn’t go unnoticed in this fair. Besides the professional dancers, the stage of Expocity welcomed students form “Sami Frasheri” and “Qemal Stafa” High Schools in Tirana, to represent various traditional costumes from Diber, Tirana, Cameria etc.
2-4 June were three very productive days at Expocity, that was not only a celebration but also a point of start to many new collaborations and new projects between countries, agencies and people.
We are gladly looking forward to the next event of Expocity Albania !