FINAL REPORT WELLNESS AND FITNESS, HUNTING AND LEISURE I. BASIC INFORMATION On 29 th January 2017 the exhibition centre INCHEBA EXPO Bratislava closed its gates after 4-days long hosting of prestigious series of exhibition events: 23 rd international travel fair ITF Slovakiatour, 24 th exhibition Hunting and Leisure and 9 th exhibition Wellness and Fitness. This very popular exhibition trio overflew with rich and colourful accompanying programme and lots of experiences. The ITF Slovakiatour offered all visitors a complex overview of the many ways to enjoy holiday at home as well as trips to popular destinations all over the world. Everyone could compare offers of travel agencies, get to know about the most important Slovak spa, learn about favourite destinations from representatives of individual countries and regions as well as from exhibition stands of Slovak and Czech regions, towns and municipalities. The fair took place under the patronage of the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development of the Slovak Republic and professional guarantee was taken over by the Slovak Tourism Association. The exhibition Hunting and Leisure is an inherent part of the fair; its 24 th edition presented to all visitors a wide offer of hunting and leisure time clothes, guns, samples of archery and laser shooting gallery. The exhibition took place under the patronage of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic and under the professional patronage of the Slovak Hunting Chamber.
The 9 th edition of the Wellness and Fitness offered information on machines and equipment for exercise and helped all visitors get oriented in the wide selection of food supplements. The accompanying programme at the stage dedicated to yoga, strength sports and acrobatics lured lots of healthy life style enthusiasts to the exhibition. The fair presented 350 exhibitors in total, coming from Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Poland, Republic of South Africa, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and Slovakia. The exhibition event was visited by 69,386 visitors. Two partner regions of the fair were a novelty of this year the national one was the Košice Region and foreign one was the Moravian-Silesian Region. They presented to all visitors tourist attractions and places worth visiting. Slovakia was represented through all regions. Czech Republic was presented via individual exhibition stands besides Moriavian- Silesian Region by South Moravian Region, Eastern Moravia, South Moravian Region, Plzen Region, Central Bohemian Region and Municipal Cultural Centre Třebíč.
II. OPENING CEREMONY AND OFFICIAL VISITS The opening ceremony took place in the presence of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development SR Peter Durček, State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development SR Gabriel Csicsai, Chairman of the Bratislava Self-Governing Region Pavol Frešo, Chairman of the Banská Bystrica Region Marián Kotleba, Chairman of the Prešov Region Peter Chudík, Chairman of the Trnava Region Tibor Mikuš, Vice-Chairman of the Žilina Region Jozef Štrba, Vice- Chairman of the Košice Region the partner region of the fair István Zachariáš, Deputy Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region the partner region of the fair Ján krkoška, Director of the Office of the Trenčín Region Juraj Gerlici, Mayor of the capital city SR Bratislva Ivo Nesrovnal, Chairman of the Association of Towns and Communities SR Michal Sýkora, general director of the tourism section of the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development SR Ivana Magátová, President of the Slovak Tourism Association Marek Harbuľák, President of the Slovak Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agents Stanislav Macko, mayors and deputy mayors of Banská Bystrica, Bojnice, Dolný Kubín, Michalovce, Nitra, Vysoké Tatry, Piešťany, Žilina, Snina, Sobrance, Stará Ľubovňa, Spišská Nová Ves, Veľké Kapušany, ambassadors and other members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of foreign tourist centres of participating countries, representatives of other professional associations, exhibitors, Slovak media and other guests. III. ACCOMPANYING PROGRAMMES During the four-day long course of the fair, the accompanying programmes were dedicated to both professional and wide public. On the first day of the fair, press conferences and presentations were prepared by North East Slovakia with its partner Lourdes, Žilina Region with Tourist Information Centre St Petersburg; Moravian-Silesian Region the partner region of the fair introduced its country as a region full of contrasts and Eastern Bohemia introduced tourism novelties of the region. For the first time ever a press conference was prepared and held by Cuba a very successful one in the end. The Embassy of Brazil in Bratislava presented a tourism in Brazil. The Slovak Tourism Association prepared a professional conference for experts called Sustainable Quality in Tourism versus Employment. From Friday till Sunday, the stage in B2 hall hosted a rich hunting programme dedicated to organized falconry in Czech Republic, Morava and Slovakia. The stage in B0 hall where Wellness and Fitness exhibition took place, also hosted samples of bicycle acrobatics of Krystián Herba from Poland, lectures, meditations and samples of yoga, and strength battles with Kettlebel. The exhibition grounds also hosted a well-known and famous drum show Capoeira Abadá and Campana Batucada. The popular festival of travel films and photographs Bubo Ball Camera Slovakia took place during weekend. Professionals for who travelling means life educated all visitors
on interesting corners of our world; during the whole festival two cinema halls were screening films about journeys across all continents including travelling classics as well as unique expeditions. IV. AWARDS The gala reception witnessed awarding of prizes to Moravian-Silesian Region and Košice Region for cooperation during the partner region of the fair project. The Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development SR announced the personalities of tourism; this year the titles went to Juraj Urban Sr. (in memoriam), Ján Ďurovčík and Sylvia Maliariková. Awards were given out to them for their significant contribution to the development of domestic tourism.
V. PROMOTION AND PR The ITF Slovakiatour and Danubius Gastro fairs together with the accompanying exhibitions Hunting and Leisure, Wellness and Fitness, Exposhop and Gastropack got a lot of live feeds in Slovak televisions, radios, mainstream newspapers as well as in specialized, news and lifestyle web sites. TVs All relevant televisions had the fairs of gastronomy and tourism fully covered. TV Markíza broadcasted 3 live feeds from the fairs right from the exhibitors stands and a reportage in Televízne noviny o 17 (TV News at 5pm) and at 7pm. The next day the TV broadcasted another report from the fair. Slovenská televízia (Slovak National TV) talked about the fairs in Dámsky klub show (STV1), through live feed in Ranné správy o 8 (Morning News at 8am) (STV), reportage in Správy o 19 (News at 7pm). The Joj TV showed the atmosphere of the fairs in Noviny o 12 (News at 12am) and Noviny o 17 (News at 5pm). Západoslovenská TV also reported about the events through reportages. Radios The fairs of travel and gastronomy resonated in the most popular radios. Fun Radio informed about the events in its regional news in morning broadcasts, the Expres Radio highlighted the fairs in its daily broadcast. The events also resonated through broadcasting in different radio circuits of Slovenský rozhlas Rádio Slovensko or Rádio Regina, bringing the atmosphere of both events via journalistic coverages, news stories, announcements and sponsorship feeds. Print Information on the events were brought to readers via daily news Nový Čas and Plus 1 Deň. The mainstream daily papers that covered the fairs via reportages was daily news Pravda. On-line Novelties, atmosphere of the fair and everything interesting was covered by many news, lifestyle or entertaining web pages. Worth mentioning are sme.sk, pravda.sk, dobrejedlo.sk, feminity.sk, aktualne.sk, topky.sk, dromedar.sk, 24hod.sk, dnes24.sk, teraz.sk, spectator.sme.sk, noviny.sk, netky.sk, openiazoch.sk, poloinfo.sk, rozhlas.sk, varecha.sk, woman.sk, bakurier.sk, noizz.sk, regionoviny.sk and many other regional web sites and calendar events. Outdoor Billboards, bigboards, citylights, flags, banners and doublebigboards informed people about the fairs all over Slovakia.
VI. MARKET POSITION The ITF SLOVAKIATOUR fair together with the Danubius Gastro fair and exhibitions Wellness and Fitness and Hunting and Leisure once again proved its position of the biggest and most attractive exhibition event of its kind in Slovakia. VII. INFORMATION ON FUTURE EDITION Incheba Expo Bratislava is already looking forward to the next edition of the fair that will take place from 25 th to 28 th January 2018; we believe it will be even more interesting, with even richer offer of national and foreign exhibitors. Interest in presentation at the future edition was expressed by most of the participating exhibitors. We are looking forward to our future cooperation. Ernest Nagy Renáta Urbančoková Martina Šubová Organizational Team of the Exhibition Event Tel. +421/2/6727 2588, 6727 3106, 6727 2128 E-mail: slovakiatour@incheba.sk www.incheba.sk