When Dalarna hosted the international travel congress Adventure Travel World Summit this week, there was a lot of excitement. Outdoor pancakes, an underground sauna, fly fishing and the Dalsian attitude made the media, influencers and tour operators open their eyes to the Swedish region.
Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS), is an annual international congress with, among others, tour operators, journalists and influencers with a focus on nature and cultural tourism. This year it was organized in Lugano, Switzerland, 3–6 October. Participants from all over the world come to the congress to be inspired, arouse interest, make contacts and build relationships. Dalarna was represented by Visit Dalarna together with a number of the region's tourism industry companies.
– It is an important showcase for Dalarna. It is partly an opportunity to increase awareness of what we have to offer, and partly a way to generate future business. In addition to meetings and networking, we organized our own activities to show who we are in Dalarna and, above all, what there is to do here. We set up an outdoor campsite where we offered after work at Dalavis. We fried ”pannkaku” over an open fire, offered reindeer sausage and blueberry soup. At the same time, our accompanying companies were able to mingle around and pitch their offers, says Johan Engström, business developer at Visit Dalarna.
The Dalam companies that were present at the fair were Vasaloppet, Äventyrsgruvan Tuna Hästberg, Anglerman Fishing Adventures, Green Owl Travel, Dalum and Rösjöstugorna.
– The event had a huge impact and a lot of attention on site. Not least because of the way we did it; unpretentious and easygoing, but still professional. There is a lot of interest in the experiences we presented, where for example Äventyrsgruvan's underground sauna and their upcoming "dynamite lodge" got many people excited. Normally you need to chase attention and interest from the media, influencers and tour operators. Here, instead, many people chased us. Now we are taking advantage of the interest by following up on business contacts and inviting press visits. This bodes well for the future of Dalarna's tourism industry, says Johan Engström.
According to the press release.
