From April 18 to 21, Estonia successfully hosted the ‘Meet Estonia 2011‘ workshop/fam trip attracting participants from 11 countries across Europe.
Organised jointly by the Estonian Convention Bureau and Enterprise Estonia, Estonian Tourist Board, the event gave 43 professional event planners and association representatives a taste of what Estonia has to offer as a meeting destination.
In addition to visiting the 1,800-seat Nokia Concert Hall, a number of modern conference hotels and unique historical venues, the visitors took part in an active programme that included a nighttime tour ‘Searching the Lost Key of Tallinn’ and a traditional Estonian-style party.
International meeting planners also had the chance to attend a workshop with local suppliers, and a large portion of them took part in post-tour visits to the university town of Tartu or the seaside resort town of Pärnu.
Participants found Estonia’s conference infrastructure to be fully up-to-date and good value for money, and were impressed by the both compactness of the destination cities and the availability of free Wi-Fi nearly everywhere.
Brunella Bertolino from Catania said the trip was an unforgettable experience. “I did not know Estonia before and I had no idea that it is such a nice, well organised, modern and efficient destination. I surely recommend the country to my clients” she added.
“We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from all the guests. As Estonia is still a relatively undiscovered destination, the short local distances, unique mix of medieval atmosphere and modern facilities, diversity of the venues and programme options as well as friendly, English-speaking Estonians were the facts that surprised participants the most,” said Kadri Karu, Managing Director of the Estonian Convention Bureau.
This was the third time that the Meet Estonia fam-trip took place. The Marketing Director of Estonian Tourist Board (Enterprise Estonia), Mr Tarmo Mutso, said that the number of meeting planners interested in participating in the Meet Estonia fam-trip has continued to grow every year. It is also rewarding to recognise that the previous trips have already resulted in actual cooperation and more events choosing Estonia as their next meeting destination.
This release was prepared by the Estonian Convention Bureau, a non-profit organisation established jointly by public and private sector bodies in order to attract international conventions to Estonia. The ECB’s 23 members include the cities of Tallinn and Tartu, the national carrier Estonian Air, and a number of DMCs, PCOs and hotels.
The programme “Promoting Estonia as a Conference Tourism Destination” is supported by the European Union’s Regional Development Fund.
