Bridgetown, BARBADOS.- Haiti’s tourism product has been re-positioned to international tourism service providers at ITB Berlin 2015. A delegation from Haiti’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industries led by Minister Stephanie Villedrouin participated at ITB Berlin 2015, one of the world’s largest travel trade shows, in Berlin, Germany from 4 to 8 March 2015 with the support of The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export).
Over 10,000 exhibitors from 186 countries displayed their goods and services at the trade show where as many as 115,000 visitors attended over the five day event. According to estimates from Messe Berlin, the volume of sales at ITB Berlin increased from 6.5 billion euros in 2014 to 6.7 billion euros in 2015.
The Ministry led a Haitian commission comprising of 4 artisans and 2 tourism companies, who benefited greatly from the high visibility exhibition and large variety of networking events including business to business meetings with tour operators, hotels and other service providers, such as Club Med and Look Voyages, as well as with relevant Spanish, Venezuelan and North American investors. Furthermore, the encounter with AVIAREPS Tourism GmbH, one of the world’s leading tourism and airline sales and marketing company, resulted in the signing of a 12-month contract, which will help promote Haiti as a tourist destination with the view of attracting tourist flows to the country.
It is hoped that through the contacts made at the trade show, the Agency will support the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industries of Haiti in positioning the country as a unique and important tourist destination, marketing their travel services to new clients and creating business linkages with international tourism service providers.
Caribbean Export organized this mission within the framework of the Haiti/Dominican Republic Binational Programme, funded by the European Union under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF).