North Sailing News

12 Icelandic companies from the Icelandic Travel Trade participated in a Roadshow around the Baltics, Finland and Russia from the 28 September - 05 October 2003. Amongst these companies were representatives from hotels, tour operators and group operators. North Sailing was invited to participate in this tour, which we gladly accepted. The cost involving such a tour is expensive but a few companies from North-Thingeyjarsyslum put theirs camps together to promote tourism in their region. They were: Fosshótel Húsavík, Gamli Baukur Restaurant, Narfastaðir Farmhotel, Kaldbakskot smáhýsi, Árból guesthouse and Saltvík horsetours. In addition were two other companies from the North, Sporttours and KEA Hotels. The set up of the Roadshow was such that representatives from travel agencies and tour operators in each city were invited for an Iceland introduction and there they had the opportunity for a short meeting with each of the 12 companies to familiarize themselves with the Icelandic porducts. The Roadshow was iniated by Icelandair and in particular Mr. Pekka Mäkinen who is the General Manager for Icelandair in these territories. The programme was very intense whereas travel was by planes, busses and helicopter between the six cities, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Moscow. These are markets with great potential in particular when Icelandair will reinstate their flights from Helsinki to Iceland which makes Iceland more accessible. Upon arrival back on home ground the Icelandic group agreed that the trip had been successful although folks didn´t want to be to optimistic as such pioneering can take quite some time before the results become noticeable.



The roadshow team at the Icelandic Embassy in Moscow.