The Travel Exhibition and Budapest Boat Show concluded successfully
More than 200 exhibitors, almost 30,000 visitors and cautious optimism in the tourism industry – that’s how the just-ended Travel+ Exhibition and the Budapest Boat Show, which took place at the same time, can be summed up. The HUNGEXPO Budapest Congress and Exhibition Centre hosted a number of professional events over the four days, and this year’s guests of honour Bulgaria, as well as Gyula and Békés county were introduced.
Although tourism figures have not yet reached pre-Covid levels, participants at this year’s Travel+ Exhibition were satisfied with this year’s event. The 68 foreign and 150 Hungarian exhibitors reported significant interest and numerous business deals after the close of the event.
The exhibition again hosted a number of professional meetings, round tables and workshops. On the opening day, a conference entitled “We’re turning the page to 2024” was held, at which representatives of the tourism industry spoke mainly about the fact that tourism had experienced a significant boom in 2022, but has since stagnated.
The weekend was – as usual – open to the general public, who could choose from 23 national and 28 international destinations with their own stands. More than 2.5 thousand people tried out an electric bike on the E-bike Test&Show test track, a significant increase of almost 50 percent compared to last year.
This year, the Caravan Salon showcased 60 motorhomes and caravans. Exhibitors have seen a significant increase in interest and on-site sales compared to previous years.
Visitors were greeted by live animals, a multi-functional virtual community space, an active play area for children and free health screenings.
On the stages, they could enjoy a variety of destination presentations, buy tickets to several local festivals on Festival Island, meet travel influencers at Blogger Corner and meet the country’s famous independent backpackers and extreme travellers at the Journeys on the Road Festival.
The Budapest Boat Show, “Hungary’s largest land port”, was opened at the same time as the Travel+ exhibition.The strategic partner of the Budapest Boat Show is traditionally the Hungarian Sailing Association and the Balaton Boat Show, and its professional patron is the Association of Boat Industry Entrepreneurs.
At this major event for the boating and water sports season, visitors could see motor and electric boats of different brands, choose from a wide range of boating equipment, services and clothing, and buy water sports equipment. Exhibitors were particularly pleased this year, as not only was there a great deal of interest, but concrete business was also concluded.
This time, the organisers of the exhibition have asked the Hungarian Sailing Academy and the Hungarian Sailing Association to host the sailing event. This year is the year of the Five Olympic Games, and therefore Olympians, former top athletes and future Olympic hopefuls were given a special role.
The exhibition will place great emphasis on showcasing the latest innovations, with the Innovation Contest being launched for the eleventh time.
In the “Sailing, Electric and Powerboat” category, the 100% electric boat DELPHIA 10 LoungeTop by Adex Yachting Ltd. The boat also won the special prize for the Greenest Product.
The second place went to Royal Spa Hungary Ltd.’s Royal Craft 24, a 7.3 m electric small boat, which also won the special prize for Best Domestic Development. Third place went to Power and Sail Hungary Kft.’s Stream RIB 650.
The winner in the “Marine Related Products” category was the high performance EVOY outboard and inboard engine from Hanse Hungaria Kft.
Last year’s developments and the winners of the competition were also presented at the exhibition.
