Over 1600 productive meetings at Harstad sales workshop

The AETC sales workshop held last week was attended by 75 tour operators from 14 different countries. They had the chance to meet 91 different companies from Northern Norway, Finnish Lapland and the Swedish Arctic region. Between September 4th and 6th, a total of 1609 productive meetings took place – which surely laid the foundation for more long-term collaborations to come.

One of the Swedish participants was Sara Eriksson, Sales and Marketing Manager, Camp Ripan in Kiruna.

“Participating in AETC’s Sales Workshop was a given for us at Camp Ripan. It is important to physically meet and strengthen relationships with existing partners but also find new ones to work sustainably with a year-round focus. One of the main focuses of the workshop was to work with fall, which suits us well as we see a need to spread our guests all year round”, says Sara and continues:

“It is equally important to meet colleagues in the industry and exchange experiences, here you had the opportunity to meet across borders as both companies from Sweden, Norway and Finland are involved in the project, which creates a great added value.”

As Sara mentions, the event had a special focus on what autumn has to offer in Arctic Europe, a season that is bursting with color and offers many experiences that many travelers miss.

“For example, there is an image that the northern lights can only be seen in the winter, but the fall is just as good if it is the northern lights you want to experience. There is great potential for companies to develop products here, as the bare ground offers different opportunities than in winter,” says David Lind, Travel Trade Manager, Swedish Lapland Visitors Board.

A Knowledge Transition Pre-tour with a solid program

David Lind was in charge of a Knowledge Transition Pre-Tour held before the workshop. This was one of several Pre-Tours where tour operators had the chance to meet entrepreneurs along the way in both Sweden and Norway to see and learn. David’s tour spent two days in Luleå, Gunnarsbyn, Harads and Arjeplog in Sweden before crossing the border to Norway. Also in Norway there was a solid program that David got help from Visit Bodø to put together.

“We had great days together where we experienced fantastic hospitality in both Sweden and Norway. When I spoke to the tour operators afterwards, they were very pleased. This type of trip is an important opportunity for companies to showcase what they have to get the chance to sell their facilities”, says David.

Satisfied participants at the workshop

Petronella Modin, Operations Manager Swedish Lapland Visitors Board, also participated in the AETC event in Harstad.

“It was a successful event and one of the participants I spoke to afterwards said that the meetings were 100 out of 100. By that he meant that all the meetings produced something, it was simply productive. That’s great to hear considering how much work goes into a workshop like this.”

Petronella is one of the Swedish project leaders of the Arctic Europe Tourism Cluster (AETC) project. The project aims to build a more resilient and regenerative tourism, to meet rapid changes and future expectations and to benefit the tourism industry, local communities and visitors in Arctic Europe.