Nordic Hotel Forum represented at Estonian Tourism Days in China

Under the aegis of the Tourism Development Centre of Enterprise Estonia, the Estonian Tourism Days were held in the country’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo in China at the end of May, and one of those represented at the event was the Nordic Hotel Forum. The Tourism Days were designed to raise awareness of Estonia and boost the number of tourists coming to the country from China and the average length of their stays by 50% within two years.

The Tourism Days, held from 26–28 May, were attended by Expoturism, a non-profit organisation put together especially for the event. The organisation comprises thirteen members: primarily leading Estonian tourism companies and hotels, but also representatives of the City of Tallinn.

110 Chinese tourism companies and media representatives attended the seminar. “Around 4000 Chinese tourists visit and stay in Estonia every year, and that’s a significant number,” said Tarmo Mutso, the director of Enterprise Estonia’s Tourism Development Centre. “That’s why we’re planning another similar event in Beijing this autumn – Estonian companies have a lot of faith in the Chinese market, and you can see why, given the number of enquiries we’ve received. It’s a big thing, really, that companies competing amongst themselves in Estonia have joined forces to reach out to the Chinese market in the way they have. It’s certainly helped generate greater interest.”

Making the event even more entertaining was a performance by Estonian singer Lenna Kuurmaa and her band, which was a big hit among the Chinese audience.

“For a ‘first contact’ scenario it was a huge success, and we hope we’ve got our foot in the door in the Chinese market now,” said Feliks Mägus, director of the Estonian Hotel and Restaurant Association and Chairman of the Board of the Nordic Hotel Forum. “If we manage to sign some good deals, Estonian tourism will gain a lot from it. We’ve just got to make sure that we’re consistent – and persistent – in our approach. If we’re going to raise Estonia’s profile, the public and private sectors need to keep working together.”

According to the statistics of the China National Tourist Office, Chinese travellers made 48.6 million trips abroad in 2009, 6% more than in 2008. The World Tourism Organisation cites China as one of the biggest and most rapidly growing tourism nations, expecting it to reach 50 million foreign trips in 2010 and 100 million by 2020.

The members of the Expoturism non-profit organisation are Baltic Tours, Estonian Holidays, Estravel, Kaleva Travel, Via Hansa, Wris, Nordic Hotel Forum, Reval Hotels, Saarehotell, Spa ja Konverentsihotell Strand, Olympic Casino, OÜ Elujõud (a tourism farm in Viljandi County) and EHTE (tourism school). Its partners are the Tourism Development Centre of Enterprise Estonia and the Enterprise Board of the City of Tallinn.