Nordic Travel Fair 2007

With over 1150 exhibitors from 69 countries, the Nordic Travel Fair is the penultimate event for travelers looking for inspiration for their next vacation.

Exhibits at the Nordic Travel Fair (Matka) 2007, held at Helsinki’s Fair Centre (Messukesus), were broken into the geographic categories of Southern Finland; East, Central, and Western Finland; Lapland, American, Asia, Africa, and Australia; and Europe. Some of the more interesting booths featured a woman wearing a country-western outfit to promote a country-western themed inn in Southern Finland (who knew that is popular enough to spawn an inn in Finland?); reindeer sausage samples at a booth in the Lapland section; an espresso bar in Italy’s booth, with a group of Italians striking a bella figura sipping espresso and chatting with colleagues; and free henna tattoos, courtesy of the Tunisian Tourist Board. Even Iran was there, promoting itself as a tourism destination.

All in all, it was a great opportunity to get information about places I've always wanted to visit and I've never heard of to inspire my travels in 2007.

Here are a few interesting facts about tourism in Finland, according to Matka 2007 press releases:

• Finnish states and municipalities spent 261 million euros in promoting the travel industry in 2004
• A third of the Helsinki travel marketing budget goes to marketing Helsinki as a travel destination among foreign audiences
• According to the Association of Finnish Travel Agents (SMAL), Spain continues to be the number one destination for package deal foreign vacations among Finns. Thailand and India are growing in popularity as package travel destinations.