2023 Review and a peek into 2024
2023 has been a busy year for us all.
Tourism is thriving again with many destinations and operators enjoying excellent numbers. Whilst some regions in the East are still below pre-pandemic numbers due to lingering effects of the Ukraine conflict, there are destinations in the West and across the North Atlantic in particular struggling with a lack of capacity and record demand.
At the COLLECTIVE, our efforts have reflected this pattern, culminating with our events in Riga and on the Baltic Sea, where we discussed existential changes to our industry; the development of Cold Tourism, attracting new generations to tourism and, of course, the advance of technology.
Our community grew in 2023 with many new supplier and buyer members and, importantly, so has our partnership-reach and collaborative efforts.
The global travel industry is predicted to represent a US$15.5 tn economy by 2033 and while there will be many obstacles to overcome along the way, together we can build a responsible and robust industry for the future. We look forward to the opportunities and to the challenges in 2024 and we invite you to join us on the journey.
Membership
Almost 100 Nordic businesses now form the Collective supplier membership network with a good spread across both country and sector. In 2023 a particular effort was made to increase the number of European buyers adding 60 new European specialists to the community.
Partnerships
Significantly we have also secured a number of new collaborative partnership agreements and strengthened existing ones.
Our partnership with ETOA remains strong and we continue our joint membership arrangement with access to all ETOA European events, many of which are well attended by our Nordic and Baltic suppliers.
Webinars
Our webinar series aims to inform and stimulate debate across a range of topics
• China
• India
• UK
• Japan
• Sustainable Nordics
• Nature Tourism
• Sustainable accommodation
Tech:matters
Embracing and challenging technological advancements and exploring the opportunities for our businesses
• Techmatters- Technology evolvement
• Techmatters - distribution
• Techmatters - Martech
• Techmatters - Tik Tok
Working groups
Multi-desination and sector discussion
• Tourism resources
• Sustainability
Events
NordicMarketplace 2023
Tivoli Hotel & Congress Centre and Welcome Reception at the National Museum of Denmark.
B2B workshop with over 200 delegates
Baltic Sea Region Tourism Forum & Workshop
Conference and B2B workshop for businesses based
in and around the Baltic Sea.
120 delegates
Captains Cruise
Conference and Networking event for 60 delegates on Tallink Silja.
Membership
Continue our drive for an increase in members. The greater the membership, the more influence we have in public-private sectors and the greater number of opportunities we can generate for our members through our communications, webinars, working groups and events.
We will continue our focus on growing the number of European specialist buyers in our Nordic community
Webinars
Our webinar programme will continue and evolve with more source market and thematic webinars to include as large a cross-section of the Nordic community as possible
Working Groups
We will continue to develop the themes explored in 2023 looking specifically into the implications of Cold Tourism and developments within the educational sector, working with educational institutions to create a road map for young people considering Travel and tourism as a career choice.
Goal for 2024
Our ambition in 2024 is ‘to become ‘a leading voice for Nordic tourism’.
Events
The Nordic Marketplace returns to Copenhagen in February 2024 with the inclusion of more European special buyers particularly from DACH and Benelux.
Captains Cruise
Following the success of the Captains Cruise 2023, this special networking event will be epeated in late August 2024, Date TBA
Tech:matters
There has been much interest in our Techmatters projects in 2023 and so, for 2024, we will host a dedicated technology event to explore some of the issues and opportunities in greater detail.
Dates, format and location TBA
Building Nordic Tourism for the Future
We will organise an educational event and open day incorporating tourism businesses, educational institutions and school and college students with the aim of showing students the breadth of opportunity within the Tourism industry
Late May, Stockholm
Format TBA