This year's Travel Trade Day laid the foundation for a new tradition - it was held outside Prague for the first time, thereby spotlighting regions outside the capital. It also fulfilled the workshop's main purpose - to enable new business partnerships to be formed between foreign and Czech businesses, regions and institutions, and to support the destination brand of the Czech Republic (Czech Republic - Land of Stories) in international markets.
This year's workshop registered a higher number of buyers from more destinations. Thanks to the help of CzechTourism's foreign offices, key players from markets such as China, Germany, South Korea and Russia were brought in. The lineup was further expanded with other interesting markets such as Lithuania, Iran, India and Israel. In total, 65 buyers from 24 countries accepted the invitation. They were offered services in the conference hall of the Clarion Congress Hotel Olomouc during roughly a thousand meetings by more than 80 representatives of Czech travel agencies, hotels, regions and other institutions. Among them was our Prague Boats company, which presented its services.
Judging by the feedback the organisers received via questionnaires, the workshop met the expectations of Czech participants too - 62 percent were very satisfied and 36 percent rather satisfied. It also turned out that 49 percent of respondents definitely intend to take part in next year's edition, 44 percent answered "rather yes" and only 7 percent had not yet decided.
The Travel Trade Day workshop concluded with an informal social event at the Archbishop's Palace.
The project's partners were the Olomouc Region, the City of Olomouc, the Central Moravia Tourism Association, Fashion Arena Prague Outlet, Turkish Airlines and Czech Railways. The event was held under the auspices of the Mayor of the Statutory City of Olomouc, doc. Mgr. Antonín Staněk, Ph.D.
