The international conference support grant
The greatest achievement and win of 2022 for the business tourism team was undoubtedly the international conference support grant. The primary objectives of Tallinn’s international conference support grant are to promote Tallinn as a destination for hosting international conferences, to increase the number of international conference tourists staying in Tallinn and to increase profits from tourism and to distribute seasonal tourism more evenly. 2023 application dates will be announced by January and more information will be available on the Visit Tallinn website.
Eight international marketing events
The business tourism team at Visit Tallinn participated in eight international marketing events in 2022.
– MCE Central & Eastern Europe 2022, Budapest
– Meet The Bidder Spring Edition, Warsaw
– IMEX Fair 2022, Frankfurt
– Events Club Forum 2022, Prague
– Conventa 2022, Ljubljana
– Associations Congress 2022, Lisbon
– Meet the Bidder Grand Edition, Warsaw
– IBTM World 2022, Barcelona
At these events, Tallinn was introduced as a great destination for organising conferences and motivational trips. These events confirmed over and over that:
– Tallinn has a reputation for being a smart digital country and a new and exotic destination that is being noticed, where event organisers want to host their events.
– Associations expect more suitable and sizable event venues to be added.
– In the case of motivational trips, variety and choice of activities are factors that organisers look for in order to find flexible solutions.
– Value for money is another important factor in deciding the venue for a conference. The current global situation where prices have increased in all destinations puts Tallinn in a favourable position as its price increases have been smaller than in many other places.
– Virtual and hybrid events are losing popularity and organisers wish to hold their events on-site if possible.
– For international event organisers, novelty, prices, security, food, sports and sustainable solutions are decisive factors.
Applying for free public transport for events in the AKIS system
Tallinn provides free public transport for delegates of different international events (conferences, culture and sports events). The application process changed in 2022 – it was transferred to the AKIS system which makes the application process easier and quicker.
Further development of Meetings.ee
Visit Tallinn’s business tourism team began collecting data on conference events in 2000 and this evolved over the years into a nationwide database meetings.ee. The Estonian Business and Innovation Agency and the Estonian, Tartu and Pärnu convention bureaux have launched a business analysis project of the conference event database meetings.ee which aims to analyse the current solution, users and their needs and make proposals for developing a new database or finding alternative solutions.
For the second consecutive year, Tallinn has been named the best conference destination in Europe
Kongres Magazine titled Tallinn the best conference destination in the L-category in 2022. The cities of this category host conferences with up to 2000 delegates. Kongres Magazine points out Tallinn’s compactness. According to the magazine, it is extraordinary how many different areas are located next to each other in such a small territory. Read more here.
Visit Tallinn started the production of a new video series and the first video clip on Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel) was recently published. The work will continue next year. Visit Tallinn’s YouTube channel’s business tourism playlist, which has all the video clips made so far and will continually be updated with new ones. The videos are free to use for promoting Tallinn as a destination for business and leisure tourism.
