Trade Fair Tourist Regions at the Meeting Point of Cultures

When some interesting events happen in our home city we try to participate in them. When these events are related to travel, we even can’t miss being there. That’s what happened today – we were at the XXII Trade Fair Tourist Regions at the Meeting of Cultures.

The fair lasts 3 days, from Friday 26.02 to Sunday 28.02, and each day there are plenty of attractions for visitors.

We went to the new building of the Trade Fair on ul. Polytechnics on Saturday morning. What surprised us at the very beginning was the lack of parking spaces and the queues at the cash registers. Seriously! And it was a positive surprise :) Unlike other events, the fair occupies a larger than usual area of the hall, dedicated to the family zone. Maps with all exhibitors and a program of accompanying events await visitors at the box offices. There is also a municipal police booth at the very entrance, where you can mark your bicycle.

After entering the hall, a beach with beautiful sand and deck chairs to lie on appears to our eyes. This is the stand of a partner region – Darlowo, which promotes itself under the name Darlot (Darlowo Local Tourist Organization). Immediately to the right advertises the Lodz region, which has the second-largest booth with numerous maps and leaflets. We already know this region quite well, but each time we learn new things, learn new routes, where to jump off for a day.

Continuing to the right, we pass to the culinary section, where local producers exhibit, mainly with cold cuts, honey, juices, baked goods, etc. Here you can sample local specialties, dine as if someone is already hungry, or even do some decent shopping for home.

In the middle section, booths with specific regions in Poland await us: these are either the towns themselves or entire provinces. And so, for example, in addition to the booth of the Łódź province, there are smaller ones advertising the localities themselves, for example. Uniejów (including the Thermae in Uniejów), Brzeziny or Skierniewice. On each we can count on comprehensive information about the region’s attractions, accommodation facilities or local transportation.

Speaking of transportation, Inter Regio and Lodz Agglomeration Railway are also exhibiting at the fair, where you can feel like you’re on a train or see the world through the eyes of an engine driver thanks to Samsung Gear VR.

For those looking for more excitement, we have prepared an activity zone, which includes a climbing wall, as well as stands of MOSiR, gyms, stores with tourist equipment or even a stand of ZHP.

The organizers have not forgotten about the youngest, in fact, it can be said that they will have the most fun of the entire fair :) At many stands there will be special games, games and competitions for the youngest, face painting and lots and lots of balloons. A bouncy castle has been set up, and at one of the stands children can play as little archaeologists. A very cool stand has also been prepared by Se-Ma-For in Lodz, where slightly older “children” can recall the fairy tales of their childhood.

Both the Fair organizers themselves and the representatives of the individual booths are moving with the times and using new technologies to enhance the appeal of their products or regions. Visitors will be treated to a special mobile application that uses, among other things, each exhibitor’s QR codes. In addition, several booths have booths for taking funny photos, the aforementioned Samsung kit was used, for example, or, of course, social media profiles and hashtags are promoted.

Thanks to the fair, we were able to learn a lot of interesting information about many regions of Poland, what to see, how to travel, what activities are possible in the area, etc. We received a lot of flyers and maps to help us organize trips to Poland, which we wrote about in the post summarizing our previous year.

We were a little short of tourist organizations and representatives from other countries. There was a booth from Hungary, the Czech Republic, the Maldives, Jamaica and a company that organizes tours of Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. Of the travel agencies, there tended to be smaller companies specializing in tours of Poland, camps or language courses. We hope that with the next edition it will also be possible to learn more about regions beyond our borders.