International Black Sea Economic Forum assesses Crimea tourism prospects

YALTA, Crimea – On the second day of the IV International Black Sea Economic Forum, tourism and MICE (conferences, exhibitions and meetings) were at the center of attention of an open dialog between i

YALTA, Crimea – On the second day of the IV International Black Sea Economic Forum, tourism and MICE (conferences, exhibitions and meetings) were at the center of attention of an open dialog between international and Ukrainian delegates. The participants discussed the best practices in the region and offered options for realizing the potential of tourism in Crimea, and also evaluated the prospects for the MICE sector and recreational tourism.

Beka Jakeli, Officer of Regional Program for Europe at the World Tourism Organization, said: “Eastern Europe is the fastest growing region in the world. In 2012 the countries of the Black Sea region attracted 94 million tourists, accounting for 18% of the European market.” According to forecasts, the European market also has significant growth potential and could increase by 1.5 by 2030.

Magnus Wetterholm, CEO of Reikartz Hotels & Resorts, has highly evaluated the Swedish city of Gothenburg: “Gothenburg has a bit more than 500,000 inhabitants. In 2012, guests and residents of the city spent more than 3.6 million days/nights in its hotels. In Kyiv this figure is about one million. One of the reasons for Gothenburg’s success is cooperation between the owners of hotels, restaurants, transport companies and government. ”

Heorhiy Psariov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, shared his experience and plans for the development of medical and health tourism: “There are three problems: outdated industry standards, the absence of a sales network and marketing promotion. But we believe that this is an area of tourism, which will allow Crimea to gain a competitive advantage. Therefore now we are implementing three projects according to TUV standards, and from the beginning of 2014 we will introduce Crimean tourism to the European markets.”

The International Black Sea Economic Forum is an annual platform for dialog between the leading government and business stakeholders, international experts and media to discuss economic growth and cooperation within the Black Sea region. The forum has attracted more than 700 participants from 30 countries over the last three years.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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