GO and REGIONTOUR were carried in the spirit of religious tourism

The biggest Central European Travel Trade Fairs focusing on regions presented, to both the specialists and the general public, an offer of more than a hundred international destinations. Companies from 20 countries participated in the Trade Fair and exhibited on 10,400 m2. During the four days, the Trade Fairs were visited by almost 30 thousand people, both experts in travelling and clients. Foreign visitors came from 12 countries, especially from the neighbouring Slovakia, Germany, Poland and also Croatia, individual visitors came for example from the USA, Sweden or Spain. 391 journalists were accredited in the Press Centre, including 23 foreign journalists from Hungary, Austria, Russia and Slovakia.
REGIONTOUR, a complex exhibition of tourist destinations in Bohemian and Moravian regions and Slovakia, once again took place in the biggest pavilion of the Brno Exhibition Grounds. The highlighted topic of the Trade Fair was religious tourism which was now presented in the form of specific products with the religious theme. Regional gastronomy was focused on by the Czech Association of Hotels and Restaurants and their big project, in which they presented regional specialities. Great attention was paid to the topic of active holiday, particularly bicycle touring. For the first time at the Trade Fair a bicycle village was opened. A return to traditions and their increasing significance to travelling was highlighted by folklore dances and a craft fair.
Besides Czech travel agencies, travel agents from popular international destinations and foreign tourist offices participated in GO, the Trade Fair focusing on outbound tourism. Two stages with attractive supporting programme opened in pavilion F for the second time, turning the Trade Fair into an entertaining show.

VIP guests and key meetings

The Travel Trade Fairs GO and REGIONTOUR were officially inaugurated in pavilion P by a ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was performed by the President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Milan Štěch, the Minister of Regional Development Kamil Jankovský, the Minister of Culture Alena Hanáková, the Cardinal Dominik Duka and representatives of the South Moravian region, Brno and Brno Trade Fairs. The significance of the event was shown by the presence of chief representatives of individual regions and other important guests.
Chief representatives of the Czech Bishops' Conference, the organisation I Cammini d'Europa and CzechTourism agency participated in the workshop Religious Tourism. The main topic of discussion was the economic potential of religious tourism together with the possibility of making Czech religious monuments part of the organisation of European Pilgrimage Trails.
On the occasion of the REGIONTOUR Trade Fair in Brno, the 25th meeting of the Council of the Association of Regions of the Czech Republic was held. The governors of the regions spoke to the Minister Kamil Jankovský or the Archbishops Dominik Duka and Jan Graubner.

Supporting programme: Seminars, presentations, competitions

Organisations important in tourism headed by the CzechTourism agency participated in organising the Trade Fairs. Seminars for experts were focused for example on religious tourism, bicycle touring, education in tourism or inbound tourism from Russia.
At the Trade Fair, the results of the Tourism Grand Prix 2011/2012, a competition which promotes extraordinary and high quality acts in tourism, were announced. The winner of the Best Tourism Product category was “Pilgrimage Trails of  Eastern Moravia”, the Best Regional Promotion Campaign award went to the Ústí region and its campaign “The Gate to Bohemia” and the winner of the Best Tourist Portal was the Pardubice region and its vychodni-cechy.info. The best travel agents of last year were KovotourPlus, CK Adventura and Exim Tours, who were voted for by the general public on Sdovolená.cz.
The most important event of the rich supporting programme was the 15th edition of the film, photography and travel books festival GO KAMERA 2012, whose main topic was India. Erich von Däniken, a famous Swiss mystery researcher, was among the fifty lecturers. The lectures, which took place in two halls in parallel, were in the four days visited by several thousands of travel buffs from both the Czech Republic and abroad.

ECHOS

Kamil Janovský, the Minister of Regional Development of the Czech Republic
I came this year as well as last year because we assumed patronage of the Trade Fair. The Ministry of Regional Development is in charge of tourism, so naturally I am interested in what this year's REGIONTOUR looks like. I want to see how the offer is different from the one from last year's Trade Fair, which had quite a lot of visitors and large expositions.

Lucie Faltová, representative of the National Tourist Office of the Dominican Republic
We exhibit at the GO Trade Fair regularly and this year we have as many as four stage presentations with projections. We are happy with the number of visitors interested in our exhibition, our stand is visited by people who plan on going to the Dominican Republic, and some of them came to our lecture.  But some of the people, who were still thinking about where to go, also came to the lecture and thanks to it they decided for the Dominican Republic. So our participation is very effective.

Mons. Dominik Duka, Cardinal and the Archbishop of Prague
I am glad that the issue of historic and modern religious objects became part of the Travel Trade Fairs.  Man is a being who moves about, pilgrimage trails are characteristic to all religions and for Christianity they are typical.

Veronika Viková, Chief Marketing Officer of CK Canaria Travel, Ltd.
We exhibit in Brno every year because it is always worth it to strengthen our brand. As experts on one destination we have a specific product and we present it differently from the majority of travel agencies: lectures, food tasting. We try not only to be a travel agency, but also an intermediary of culture of the Canary Islands and the Czech Republic, and that is how we approached our presentation here at the Trade Fairs.

Stanislav Mišák, the Governor of the Zlín region
REGIONTOUR began as a scattered exhibition, with a village, a town or a micro-region presentation here and there. When regions were created, naturally they became in charge of these stands because joint exhibitions are cheaper, integrated and more informative. There are a lot of synergetic effects in promotion and it has benefits for everyone. So investing in the Trade Fair in a way that speaks to the visitors, in which I think we succeeded this year, is money well spent.

Martin Tesařík, the Governor of the Olomouc region
I think of REGIONTOUR as an opportunity for presenting regional novelties within the development of tourism. It is also an excellent chance to make contacts and an opportunity to look at what is worth seeing and visiting in the Czech Republic. Personally I think of REGIONTOUR very positively because I dedicate a lot of time to collecting information, not just here, but also on my travels. I want to use things, which are done well in other countries, in our region because grabbing a tourist's attention is a never-ending process which always needs new impulses. This is why I visit REGIONTOUR regularly and I like it.

Alena Hanáková, the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic
It is beautiful when you can “walk through” the whole Czech Republic and get general knowledge of what it offers. The informative part of the Trade Fair, meeting people from different regions, professions and other spheres is important. I like this Trade Fair very much, this is my 10th time here and it has been a pleasure.

Franco Mattiussi, the Assessor of Tourism of the Udine Municipality
I came to the International Trade Fairs in Brno in 2009 as a visitor and it was then that the first concept of cooperating with the Zlín region was born. We continue with the cooperation, in the afternoon we are going to have a meeting and we also came to introduce the project “The Land of Patriarchs”, which is based on a Christian tradition. We would like to thank Brno Trade Fairs for flexibility during the organisation of our exposition.

Klaudio Stojnić,  the president of Croatian National Tourist Board (based in Prague)
Croatia is a number 1 tourist destination for Czech people and this Trade Fair is very interesting for both Croatian and Czech business partners, especially in South Moravia. It is an opportunity for meetings and communication.

Martin Vild, Chief Marketing Officer of Brno Airport
For us, the participation in the Trade Fair is a certain kind of research of public opinion and a report of what is the general awareness of the Brno airport. For me it is interesting to assess the questions people ask us.

Petr Horký, publicist, film maker, traveller
At the Trade Fair I introduce my new project, the book and the film “Albania, a Beauty with Bad Reputation”. But I also like REGIONTOUR because I am a globetrotter and I have been travelling all over the world for seventeen years.  It is extremely pleasant for me  to travel through the Czech Republic in one or two days. I have a Pilsen beer, a Poděbradka, a cookie and I leave the pavilion feeling happy for being Czech. The Czech Republic is beautiful and I like living here.