Iceland review - 2013, Page 86

84 ICELAND REVIEW
Visit Greenland and Z-Meetings are the main organizers of
the 28th Vestnorden Travel Mart (VNTM), held Septem-
ber 21-22 in Nuuk. Managing Director of Visit Greenland
Anders Stenbakken, who is also the chairman of the board of
the North Atlantic Tourism Association (NATA), responsible for
the annual event, highlights the good collaboration between the
three West Nordic countries—Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe
Islands—in promoting tourism in the region.
The main focus of this year’s VNTM is visibility, continuity and
attracting new buyers. “There was no fixed solution on how to
pass on the event from one country to another,” reveals Sten-
bakken. VNTM is held in Iceland every other year and every four
years in Greenland or the Faroes. One of NATA’s initiatives was
to improve the event’s website and make it a permanent source
of information. “If the visibility isn’t good enough, how can we
expect to attract new buyers?” asks Stenbakken. To that end,
organizers have been active in commercializing the event, among
other means by making the product manual more attractive for ad-
vertisers. Visit Greenland also went on a road-trip of the U.S along
with its Icelandic partners, recruiting seven new American compa-
nies for VNTM 2013. “Twenty-seven percent of companies have
never been at Vestnorden before,” says Stenbakken. A novelty
at VNTM this year is the pioneering lounge to which companies
that are not directly related to tourism have been invited, includ-
ing Royal Arctic Line, Great Greenland, Royal Greenland, Bank of
Greenland and Tele Greenland.
‘Be a pioneer,’ is in fact Visit Greenland’s slogan. “The image of
Greenland, of a national park with indigenous people, has become
too static. A pioneering spirit is what is shared by all who are at-
tracted to Greenland,” says Stenbakken of both settlers and visi-
tors. “You choose Greenland because you have some of that pio-
neering DNA.”
vestnorden.com; greenland.com
Vestnorden
Pioneering nation
In organizing the 2013 Vestnorden Travel Mart,
Visit Greenland highlights West Nordic cooperation
and the Greenlandic pioneering spirit.