Over the course of four days, more than 120 representatives of Finnish travel agencies, tour operators and travel agencies had the opportunity to take a short "tasting" of the Bratislava and Trnava regions. They also attended a conference,
Over the course of four days, more than 120 representatives of Finnish travel agencies, tour operators and travel agencies had the opportunity to take a short "tasting" of the Bratislava and Trnava regions. They also attended a conference during which they were introduced to Slovakia as an attractive tourist destination for Finnish citizens. For the first time in the history of Slovakia, so many Finnish specialists in the field of tourism came to Bratisalva.
During the spring conference, there was also space for a discussion forum and lectures. This exceptional event was also attended by the Finnish Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Pasi Tuominen. "It is always a great pleasure for me when I can be in Slovakia and especially in Bratislava. The Finns have only the best memories of Slovakia, as they have won the World Championship in hockey here twice. Therefore, it is a pity that the next ones will not be in Slovakia, but in the Czech Republic, but I believe that we will meet the Slovaks in the finals in Prague. But a few words about tourism in Finland and Slovakia. My job is to convince Finns that Slovakia is a good destination and vice versa. After today's conference, I am very glad that you had the opportunity to present your beautiful country to our travel agencies. I believe that we will be able to strengthen joint tourism even more," said the ambassador in his speech.
President of the SMAL Tourism Association, Anne-Marjut Väänänen: "We consider your country to be safe, clean and a beautiful place on Earth. My colleagues and I are very much looking forward to exploring some of your country's "gems" over the next few days. We will take all these experiences home to Finland, share them with our colleagues and tell our residents more about your beautiful country. I firmly believe that we will be able to bring even more Finnish tourists to Slovakia."
State Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Marek Harbuľák: "We have set several goals at the Ministry in the short time we have been operating. One of them is that we will increase the number of foreign visitors to our country. That is why we have created an incoming platform whose goal is to organize similar events and together with travel agencies we will work to be able to show the beauty of our country to foreign visitors. Slovakia is full of points of interest that seem common to us, but are extremely rare for foreign visitors."
"The meeting was held in a very friendly spirit, we were pleasantly surprised by the professional interest of the Finns in our points of interest and they presented a relatively high recognition of our environment. Finnish tour operators represented a wide range of businesses, from tourist travel agencies to highly specialized entities focused on sports or congress tourism. I have a feeling that this fam trip will gradually bring to Slovakia a clientele that is generally in high demand in the world," added M. Harbuľák.
Roman Berkes, President of SACKA and Vice-President of the Tourism Association of the Slovak Republic, and Marcela Lauková, Chairwoman of the Club of Incoming Travel Agencies SACKA, a member of the Finnish Tourism Association SMAL, who has been working with this creditworthy and promising market for a long time, were behind the excellent organization of the event
About the Finnish Tourism Association SMAL:
SMAL is a consortium of approximately 160 travel agencies, tour operators and incoming agencies that promote the interests of their members in relations with public authorities, legislators, as well as in the field of domestic and international organizations. The total turnover of SMAL member companies in 2022 amounted to more than EUR 1.5 billion, which is approximately 95% of the total turnover of the sector in Finland. SMAL members employ a total of approximately 2500 people at home and abroad.
Founded in 1940, the trade association's international member network now includes around 120 other tourism companies and entities, such as transport companies, accommodation providers, domestic and foreign tourism authorities, tourism educational institutes, travel consultants, travel media, and technology companies.
MATKA Nordic Travel Fair, the largest northern European tourism event, is organized by SMAL.