For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair

Planning for the Oslo Blog Gathering, Norway Travel Fair 2010 gave inspiration, impulses and make some new contacts which can help as well. Exhibitors from all over the world make this Norway’s largest arena for the travel trade and visitors. Their aim is to be an inspirational market and meeting place for all Norwegian travellers by providing information as well as face to face personal contact. Europe is the world’s leading tourist region, with 500 million arrivals per year accounting for 53 per cent of global tourism. Of course Norway has a lot of potential in the world travel market, both within and beyond Europe. The fair’s PR strategist Bjørn B. Jacobsen, said at the opening: “Our biggest challenge is to build better awareness about and greater knowledge of the travel trade as an industry of the future. That also embraces the importance of idea, product development and concepts….” and I was thinking: let us show them how to make use of social media as communication channels too :-)

My wife DianeCA and I were there to meet some of the OsloBG’s associates and get inspiration and of course we invite you along as well. Let’s start with the gatherings key contributor; visitOSLO:

For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #1

Not all the staff at visitOslo knows in detail about OsloBG, yet – but all at their stand do now :-) It was inspiring to discuss with them this experiment of using the Blogsphere and other Social Media to gather people from all over the world for three days of exploring Oslo and Norway; our culture, history and traditions.
For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #2

Their site is an excellent start for your exploration and to find out what you would like to see and experience while joining us in August! Their site has an English version, and of course it is all free!

Visitnorway.com:
Not only Oslo, but Norway’s tourism organisations as a whole are aware of the internet as the most important travel information channel. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has given Innovation Norway the responsibility for the development and maintenance of the official travel guide to Norway: Visitnorway.com. The site includes several means of planning your next trip to Norway and in a lot of languages: visitnorway.com/es or, …./fr, /de, /uk, /us etc!
Of course we had a visit to talk about OsloBG at their stand too, with some spectacular show to attract visitors:

For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #4 For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #3
Left: Looking at OsloBG website – Right: An acrobat’s performance


Having fun at a travel fair:
To introduce, promote and have fun, there were of course entertaining attractions as well. To make it short, in pictures:
For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #8 For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #14
A needed massage – Glass blowing
For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #11 For Oslo Blog Gathering at Norway Travel Fair #12
Fun for the children too of course.

OsloBG BookingI hope you will stop by the sites of both VisitOslo and VisitNorway and check out the information they have on travel and tourism. These are two official channels for tourism and give thorough information on what to see, what to do, and where to go when visiting Oslo and Norway in general. Some people coming to the trip may want to extend their stay to see more of the country since they have already travelled so far, and this is a good place to get information in planning your trip. If you are definitely planning on joining us for the Oslo Blog Gathering 2010, I hope you will remember to book your program fee soon! Only the first 50 booked will be able to participate in the reception in the City Hall with the Mayor due to space restrictions.