Mr. Juergen Gevers, General Manager of AVIAREPS Tourism Gmbh and Stephanie B. Villedrouin
|
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 10thEuropean Development Fund (EDF).