All about the Slovenian Incoming Workshop 2019

Slovenian Incoming Workshop (SIW), which is the largest business event of Slovenian tourism, will host more than 400 participants this year, including 155 foreign participants from 37 countries, who will attend more than 3,500 business meetings and gatherings within the SIW on this day alone. As many as 72% of participating foreign companies are attending the SIW for the first time.

This year, both formal and informal business meetings will be given special attention, as both provide an excellent opportunity to consolidate the existing partnerships between representatives of the Slovenian tourism industry and foreign tour operators and agents and to create new ones. Hence, the Slovenian agents have already joined the foreign ones on the so-called pre-tour. Together over the course of today’s workshop, they enjoyed the finest cuisine and numerous adventure programmes presenting green, active and healthy experiences. They will also continue to create business bonds in the next two days during four fam trips. 

This year, the Slovenian Tourist Board (STB) is organising the 22nd Slovenian Incoming Workshop (SIW), where the leading representatives of Slovenian tourist companies, organisations, hotels, travel agencies, health resorts, public tourist organisations, congress centres and other tourism providers meet with the representatives of foreign tour operators, travel agencies and specialised agencies.

The STB’s incoming workshop enables the Slovene tourist providers to make actual business deals with key customers from Europe and remote countries, while foreign participants get to meet our country while doing business and become acquainted with our tourist offer and products through numerous first-hand experiences and fam trips.

A press conference was held today within the main SIW day, where the Minister of Economic Development and Technology, Zdravko Počivalšek, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, Eva Štravs Podlogar, and the Director of STB, Maja Pak MSc, elaborated the importance and the role of SIW in the presentation and marketing of Slovenian tourist offer and the current themes of Slovenian tourism.

On this occasion, Zdravko Počivalšek, Minister of Economic Development and Technology, highlighted the following: "I am delighted that more foreign tour operators than ever are participating in this year’s SIW, which is of great importance for the Slovenian tourist industry.  All of us who are gathered here in Olimje today should unite to achieve the key target of the strategy for the sustainable growth of Slovenian tourism: to increase international tourism receipts to 4 billion euros by 2021. Within two years, we have increased the revenues by half a billion euros, reaching 2.7 billion euros in the last year. Year after year, we are steadily increasing the number of tourists and overnight stays, which was also the case in the first quarter of this year. But in order to achieve the target, we absolutely must increase the added value of tourism. This is a joint task for tourist companies and the state. Ahead of us lie regulatory changes, continuous financial support of investments and development activities in tourism, work in the field of human resources in tourism and, of course, the restructuring of state-owned hotel companies.” 

Eva Štravs Podlogar, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, explained the priority tasks in the field of tourism:"Over the last two years, we have allocated 16.7 million euros to support 117 projects. Thus, we encouraged the development of new tourist products and the creation of new jobs. We supported eco-labelling and more efficient integrated marketing and digital promotion of Slovenia's leading tourist destinations. This year, the Ministry will launch three invitations to tender in the amount of 38 million euros for energy efficient renovations of tourist facilities, for acquisition of eco labels, and for development and promotion of integrated products of tourist companies and of the offer of leading tourist destinations. The Ministry will also prepare a new Hospitality Industry Act, which aims to eliminate unnecessary administrative obstacles and other burdens of the caterers.”

Maja Pak, MSc, the director of the STB, spoke at the opening of the SIW:"The Slovenian Incoming Workshop is the most important business event in the field of tourism, which represents an exceptional opportunity for making business deals, strengthening partnerships and establishing new contacts. This year's SIW brings many new opportunities for even stronger networking and integration of Slovenian tourism providers and foreign participants. Within the SIW, foreign participants get to know our country and to live genuine and unique experiences first-hand on fam trips. For the first time this year, we have also included informal events and numerous experiences that present our country as a destination committed to sustainability and full of authentic and unique experiences. More than 3,500 formal and informal business meetings will take place during the SIW. It is particularly pleasing that as much as 72% of foreign participants are attending for the first time. Most foreign participants from Europe come from Italy, Germany and France, and from among the remote countries, most are from the United States of America.”  

The hosting destination of this year’s event is Terme Olimia in Podčetrtek. Florjan Vasle, director of Terme Olimia, and Peter Misja, mayor of Podčetrtek municipality, spoke at the press conference and elaborated the importance of SIW for the destination and for the hosting facility.

Florjan Vasle, Director of Terme Olimia d.d.: “I am pleased that we are hosting this year's Slovenian Incoming Workshop at Terme Olimia, the leading selfness destination in Slovenia. We had a successful and breakthrough investment year, raised the level of our services and set even higher standards in thermal tourism. The results are visible at every step, and numerous awards confirm them – Wellness Orhidelia has been declared the best Slovenian wellness for the 10th consecutive year. I am proud of the close cooperation with the local environment, which has been recognised by our guests as one of the competitive advantages. I want all the participants of the event to feel this synergy and diversity of experiences, so that we as the host of SIW can rank even higher on the international markets.”

On this occasion, the mayor of the Podčetrtek municipality, Peter Misja, pointed out that “the Municipality of Podčetrtek is distinctly touristic. In recent years, our connectedness and good cooperation have enabled us to climb to the top of tourist visibility. Recognitions such as gold for Podčetrtek and Olimje in the 'Entente florale, green destination gold' competition, place us among the best sustainable destinations. All this suggests that we can be very successful despite our small size. We are pleased to be able to host a large number of events that give additional value to our development. This year's events at the SIW will definitely prove that we are a good host and that people are the most important asset in our success story. Welcome to the municipality of Podčetrtek.“

This year's SIW with a series of new features and even stronger networking of domestic and foreign participants

The main part of the Slovenian Incoming Workshop is taking place today in Terme Olimia, featuring pre-arranged 15-minute business meetings. Workshops and meetings with 250 representatives from 163 Slovenian tourist companiesare being attended by 155 foreign companies(with 188 participants) from 37 countries, who will conduct more than 3,500 formal and informal business meetingsduring the day. This year’s SIW is hosting as many as 72% of new foreign business actors. The interest of the foreign participants in SIW remains at an extremely high level. Most participants come from Italy (18), Germany (16), and France (11), followed by participants from Hungary (6), Netherlands (6), the Russian Federation (6), Czech Republic (8), Austria (6), Croatia (5), Great Britain (4) and other countries.

39 companies come from markets outside Europe, namely from USA, Canada, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Israel, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and other outbound markets.

Informal meetings and numerous experiencesare among the novelties of this year's SIW. Slovenian exhibitors were already able to meet with the foreign participants on the first fam trip and also during the events of the SIW that are currently taking place. The novelty of this year's SIW are the numerous adventure programmes presenting green, active and healthy 5-star experiences, which the domestic and foreign participants can attend at the end of this day.

The Slovenian Evening that will take place today in Terme Olimia after the end of the fam trips will bring new opportunities for meetings, consolidation of existing relationships and exploration of new partnerships. Fam trips, which are taking place until (and including) Sunday, are organised by the STB for the foreign participants, enabling them to get acquainted with the Slovenian tourist offer and destinations. This time, the STB has prepared five fam trips to different parts of Slovenia, where the attendees will learn about the green, active, healthy, and cultural 5-star experiences. The first trip took place prior to the official opening of the SIW. The participants visited the greatest icons of Slovenian tourism, namely Ljubljana, Postojna Cave, Goriška Brda, Lipica, the Slovenian coast, Bled and Podčetrtek. In the next two days, foreign participants will attend four thematic fam trips to various parts of Slovenia and get to know the area near and far from Podčetrtek, the unspoiled nature of the Julian Alps, the offer of Slovenian natural spas and active experiences in Dolenjska on the Kolpa river. At the end of the event, all participants of SIW will get a chance to meet at a social gathering in Ljubljana. All the fam trips will highlight authentic and unique experiences, rich gastronomic offer and the provincial diversity of our land.

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