Co-operation between Finnish Tourist Board and Finpro
Co-operation to be reduced but internationalization of travel services will open new opportunities for Finnish companies.
A network of Visit Finland specialists within Finpro has been offering consulting services based on a contract of co-operation with Finnish Tourist Board (FTB) for a good year and a half. As a result of cuts in the FTB budgets the value of this contract will be substantially reduced in 2010. FTB has also decided to concentrate their marketing efforts to the Visit Finland web portal and global campaigns administered from Helsinki.
As a consequence of these changes 17 of the 22 consultants working on the FTB projects will be made redundant. Travel specialists will continue to work in the Finpro network in United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and India providing a strong international viewpoint for the development of travel enterprises. In addition Finpro will provide market information for FTB use also in Germany, Holland, Spain and Italy. FTB will also keep their marketing representatives in Sweden and the United States.
“We have been very pleased with our co-operation with the Finpro network, but our budget will be cut by 5.6 million euros next year, to a total of 9.2 million euros. This means it will be impossible to continue our co-operation with Finpro on the present level” says Jaakko Lehtonen, Director General of FTB.
Internationalization creates new opportunities for travel
Finpro will reinforce its services to travel and leisure enterprises and organisations as a part of the development of the whole Services cluster.
“The world-wide network of Finpro wishes to support travel enterprises and regions in developing their international business and finding new sales and marketing partners. Internationalizing travel and leisure services will create new opportunities, new clientele and new markets for Finnish companies. We have some good examples of travel enterprises that have found new business opportunities on markets generally less familiar to Finnish business.” says Maarit Ahola, senior consultant of Finpro.
Further information:
Mr. Jaakko Lehtonen, Director General, FTB, phone +358 10 605 8232, jaakko.lehtonen (a)visitfinland.com
Ms Outi Torniainen, Senior Vice President Communication and Marketing, Finpro, phone +358 40 512 1375, outi.torniainen (a)finpro.fi
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