Visit Norway assesses continuously where the allocated annual resources should be used in the best possible way to ensure increased value creation in tourism in Norway, and in order to offer relevant activities to the Norwegian travel industry.
France, Spain and Italy are considered interesting markets also when it comes to the MICE segment. We believe that Norway can be an attractive destination for many meeting and incentive travelers from Southern Europe.
A few years ago, France was among the MICE markets where Visit Norway worked actively, but due to budget cuts we needed to prioritize otherwise. Although incoming customer requests have been processed, there has not been a proactive work from out side in these markets in recent years.
The MICE segment in Italy and Spain has not been included in our work in the previous years, even though there have been requests from customers in these markets. During international B2B fairs, we regularly meet customers from France, Spain and Italy, as well as customers from Southern Europe who have booked meetings with us because they consider Norway as an interesting destination to explore.
As of 2023, Visit Norway will start to identify the most important agents and cooperations in all the three markets (France, Spain and Italy) and start to process the markets again, in order to plan for the most relevant operational activities next year and to work actively in these markets in the long term.
First of all, we will carry out an analysis of the most important players in the three markets, using the data we already have at our disposal at Visit Norway's offices in France, Spain and Italy. We will also gather new data which is available to assess the post-pandemic situation.
A further step will be to initiate a dialogue with the most relevant players in each country, particularly those who we believe have the greatest potential to strenghten Norway as a MICE destination. We are going to hold presentations for the most relevant agents and agencies, and we will begin exploring possibilities in each market little by little.
