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Nearly 50% more exhibitors (tour operators and foreign receptive agents) compared to 2005, will enrich this offering, which responds to an increasingly strong demand from the people of the Côte d’Azur, the third-largest group of consumers in France for overseas travel!
From India to Argentina, including Sao Tome & Principe or Spain, exhibitors from different continents will be eager to offer visitors of the Salon numerous themed holiday ideas.
Among the new features this year, you will notice: Mali and its cultural heritage, language trips to Great Britain, the United States, and Ireland, hot air balloon flights over Provence, cultural tours in Venice, thalassotherapy starting from Nice by plane to Biarritz, Innsbruck and its must-see ski area, and the Provençal village dedicated to outings and getaways during the end-of-year festivities.
The ambition of the International Tourism Fair of Nice is to bring together all international destinations in the coming years and to become a real meeting point for tourism in Europe.
A partner of the Salon, Nice Côte d’Azur International Airport, the second-largest in France, with its 9 million passengers per year, daily demonstrates the enthusiasm of the people of Nice for distant destinations with its “Plaisir de partir” platform.
While the inhabitants of the Côte d’Azur are passionate about long-haul flights, they are nonetheless interested in weekend ideas in their region or getaways in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Thus, this year, you can count on the presence of French tourist offices and accommodation professionals among the exhibitors.
In total, nearly 100 tourism professionals representing travel agencies, campsites, airlines, and shipping companies, thalassotherapy centers, lodgings, hotels, museums, French and foreign tourist offices, amusement parks, tour operators, rail carriers, and holiday villages will be attentive to the 15,000 expected visitors at the S.i.t.c.a.® this year.
The tourism offer aims to be as exhaustive as possible through the representation of several countries, but especially through the vast majority of national travel agencies that can meet everyone’s demands regardless of the desired destination!
Trips to win, every hour, and folkloric activities…
Throughout the Salon, visitors will have the opportunity to win trips or journeys offered by exhibitors every hour through a competition giveaway. Folkloric activities from different destinations will also punctuate the course of this 2nd edition.
Interview with Olivier Bertolino Organizer of SITCA
Nice Première: Can you present to us your second edition of the Sitca?
Olivier Bertolino: The International Tourism Fair of Nice is preparing its second edition with enthusiasm and determination. My primary desire, since the creation of the Salon last year, is to succeed, firstly, in establishing this young event among the annual meetings on the Côte d’Azur and to make it, in the coming years, an essential event for tourism in Europe.
This year, supported by “Plaisir de Partir,” the Salon will have the advantage of bringing together far more tourism professionals, travel agents, and tour operators than last year.
And it is in this logic that, next year, the Tourism Fair will expand to the Palais des Expositions from October 13 to 14, 2007.
NP: What will be the innovations of the 2006 salon?
OB: There will be a more significant representation of distant destinations such as Latin America and Africa. There will be more activities than last year: the Salon’s course will be punctuated by tastings, folkloric demonstrations, and conferences.
A space dedicated to our partner LIBERTYTV will allow visitors to escape through images, among other things. A Provençal Christmas village will offer excursions and outing ideas for the year-end festivities…
NP: What are the new trends in tourism in France and around the world?
OB: Great question: I would say that concerning France, for nearly five years now, we’ve been witnessing a real transformation in tourist consumption: weekends have taken precedence! Given the implementation of the 35-hour workweek, the notion of “vacation” has completely disappeared, replaced by a multiplication of short breaks throughout the year. Proximity tourism has never been so flourishing!
Regarding international, I do not believe there are destinations more “in vogue” than others, except for security reasons that we are not unaware of! And in the realm of “outgoing,” if I may use this Anglo-Saxon term, the Côte d’Azur is one of the best-placed regions thanks to its airport!
NP: What do you expect from your event this year?
OB: More visitors, of course, but also quality contacts for my exhibitors, at least similar to those obtained last year.
NP: Finally, why did you choose Nice to organize your event?
OB: The Côte d’Azur brings together the three essential criteria for the creation and development of an International Tourism Fair:
– A customer base (nearly 1 million inhabitants between Cannes and Monaco)
– A significant purchasing power (3rd GDP per capita in France)
– The 2nd largest airport in France after Roissy CDG
Practical Information
Hours: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Public Access: €3.5 from 15 years old.
Access: Plane: Nice Côte d’Azur International Airport – Train: Nice Train Station – Direct bus connection N° 17 & 30
Car: Motorways A57 (Toulon) A8 (Lyon)
Parking: Jean BOUIN – Bus Station
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