Photo: Apelöga/imagebank.sweden.se
Despite the current situation, travel companies around the world now seem to be restarting their operations and planning. This is shown not least by the unexpectedly large influx of travel actors to Visit Sweden's digital Swedish Workshop Online, where foreign travel actors and organizers meet Swedish travel destinations, destination companies and tourism industry actors.
Over 270 travel agents have booked in to the Swedish Workshop Online, which is now being held digitally for the second time. The physical meeting event, which was originally planned for Falun in 2020, has been postponed twice and the plan is now to hold it in Falun on May 18-19, 2022.
- -This is an all-time high in the number of participants at one of our Sweden workshops, says Ninnan Stenmark Åhlén, project manager and Visit Sweden's Travel Trade Manager in Germany.
Something that Visit Sweden's international team has noted is that Sweden's well-known corona strategy seems to have appealed to many foreign travel agents:
- "The Swedish corona strategy has been relatively constant and has not offered constant changes like in many other countries. This means greater predictability, which many prefer now as they start to plan long-term for travel in 2022 and 2023," Ninnan continues.
The hottest topic ahead of the workshop is Swedish nature and outdoor experiences. But there is also an increased demand for larger cities and urban activities such as cycling and hiking – activities that Visit Sweden has put on the map with foreign travel agents through long-term work.
- -It may be starting to become clear to more and more people that our Swedish cities are incredibly close to nature while offering large areas to keep your distance, concludes Ninnan.
The digital workshop about Sweden will be arranged on April 20, 21, 22 and 23 in different time zones, to attract as many participants as possible from different parts of the world.
Registration for Swedish actors to participate closed on April 8.
