Switzerland – a place to meet

The excursion was implemented within the framework of the project "Steering the meetings industry in Kraków - Appraisal and monitoring of the economic influence of the meetings industry on Kraków's economy, using good practice from Switzerland", funded by the Swiss-Polish Cooperation Programme Block Grant's Partnership Fund.

"Switzerland – a place to meet" is the motto accompanying the visit. It is related to the purpose of the visit, namely the benefits of best practices from the operation of the meetings industry in Switzerland.

During the three-day excursion, we prepared for our guests an extensive tourism-business programme in Zurich and Lucerne. Many attractive conference facilities were visited: among others, the 4D Business Village Lucerne conference centre. The Kraków tourism sector also had the opportunity to take a look at hotels with conference facilities and were most impressed by the Palace Hotel and Hotel Montana in Lucerne and Hotel Ambassador and Hotel Opera in Zurich.

Within the programme, there were numerous meetings with representatives from the Lucerne Convention Bureau and the Zurich Convention Bureau as well as a presentation given by an employee from the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland Valais, concerning a tourism observatory in the Canton of Valais as a good tool for monitoring tourism in the region, which also applies for the MICE industry.

Included in the study visit were representatives from selected conference facilities, administrators of conference halls and event organisers who actively took part in pilot studies and crucial implementation within the framework of the abovementioned project.
The visit was organised by the Kraków Convention Bureau in cooperation with partners of the project, i.e. Foundation of the University of Economics in Kraków, Kraków Festival Office and University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland Valais.