SLOVENIA: Conference Tourism Event Brings 150 Exhibitors To Ljubljana

The 8th Conventa exhibition for conference tourism in SE Europe opened in Ljubljana on Wednesday with almost 150 exhibitors from 14 countries. This year the exhibition focuses on personal congress experience, according to the organisers.

While the majority of the exhibitors at the event dedicated to business meetings, congresses and motivational trips come from Slovenia, Austria, Turkey and Serbia, this year's Conventa has attracted a record number of participating countries.

More than 3,000 meetings will take place at the exhibition, Conventa managing director Miha Kovacic told the press. "Meetings between buyers and sellers are the heart of Conventa," he added.

A number of study tours have also been prepared for the invited organisers of business meetings, including in Ljubljana, the lakeside resort of Bled, the coastal town of Portoroz, the Kranjska Gora ski resort and Slovenia's second city Maribor.

Turkish Airlines has brought a group of selected business meeting organisers from Turkey. "For them we are a so-called rising destination," Kovacic stressed.

Conventa cooperates this year with the Site association for motivational trips, which brings together 90 countries with more than 2,000 members. Ljubljana is hosting the executive committees of the association and of its foundation.

The conference is supported by both the Slovenian Tourism Board (STO) and the local tourist organisation Turizem Ljubljana.

"All partners in the destination cooperate," Tatjana Radovic of the Ljubljana Congress Office said, adding that Ljubljana was presented in a study tour to 17 clients from 11 countries.