Successful first European Tourism Media Workshop at EU Delegation

EU News 339/2016

20/10/2016

On October 18^th, 2016, the first “European Tourism Media Workshop” took place at the premises of the Delegation of the European Union to Japan. Sixteen European countries[1] (12 national tourist offices and four embassies) participated as exhibitors in this event. It was the first time for European countries to organise a joint tourism promotion event focusing on Japanese media. In total, 64 editors and journalists from newspapers, magazines, TV production companies and individual bloggers attended the workshop and actively met with exhibitors to discuss potential future cooperation for promoting Europe as a travel destination to Japanese customers.

Mr Francesco Fini, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation, opened the event and stated that “tourism is being regarded as a very important economic sector in the European Union, which not only leads to economic development and create solid employment, but also contributes to the unity of societies”. In the following presentation by freelance TV announcer and travel journalist Ms Hiromi Yokoi, media promotion strategies and upcoming touristic highlights of the 16 participating European countries were exemplified. Intensive one-on-one discussion between exhibitors and media representatives were a highlight of the workshop. The huge interest on the part of the media representatives was underlined by the fact that the event had to be extended beyond the scheduled closing time.

The goal of this joint European activity is to focus Japanese media interest on Europe as a highly interesting and richly varied travel destination for Japanese travelers, to boost the image of European countries and their cultural and touristic highlights and to regain confidence among Japanese consumers in order to create a positive trend in tourism towards Europe.

• Tweet