New Deal Europe \u2013 a virtual event connecting tour operators, travel agencies, and hoteliers from the Balkans and Southeast Europe with tour operators and travel agencies from around the world will take place, for the first time online, on April 12, 2021.<\/p>\n
121 tour operators (from 20 countries) and 52 tourist destinations and hotel companies (from 12 countries in the Balkans and Southeast Europe) had confirmed their participation more than a month before the event’s debut and have already scheduled 1,250 virtual meetings. (60% of the tour operators represented at the event are headquartered in the UK).<\/p>\n
The virtual meetings will be followed by a seminar that will offer participants the opportunity to exchange ideas and present solutions regarding the stimulation of tourism in the Balkans during and after the Covid crisis.<\/p>\n
Tine Murn, co-founder of the event, believes that the intensively unexplored attractions and experiences and the sustainable tourism offers in the Balkans are among the most valuable in the world and that the Balkans will enjoy wide popularity worldwide as soon as the world’s countries overcome the Covid crisis. He also believes that the start of the vaccination campaign has encouraged tourism organizations worldwide to look at the near future with more optimism and to begin efforts to prepare for 2022.<\/p>\n
Authorities in Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are supporting (fully or partially) the registration fee for companies from the countries they represent that have registered for the New Deal Europe event.<\/p>\n
Albania and Montenegro will be represented for the first time at the event, alongside representatives from Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia, who have participated in all editions of the event.<\/p>\n
Zorica Jovanov, Marketing Director of the National Tourism Organization of Serbia, hopes that New Deal Europe 2021 will be as productive as the 2020 edition and that she will hold discussions and establish relationships as useful and valuable as those from the previous edition. Ms. Jovanov hopes that participation in the event will support the acceleration of the long-awaited return of tourism to Serbia.<\/p>\n
Romania’s decision to exempt all visitors who provide proof of vaccination from self-quarantine and from presenting a negative Covid test was welcomed by the event organizers and is viewed with great interest by tourism authorities in the Balkans \/ Southeast Europe.<\/p>\n
The organizers hope that next year the event will be held “live” in London.<\/p>\n