Hosted Buyers Program (H.B.P.)—Tourism Development and the City TIF-HELEXPO H.B.P. for the Period 2014–2016

In their effort to confront the intensely competitive international ambiance, International Trade Fair Organizers organize hospitality programs for foreign trade visitors in the framework of their field exhibitions, in order to add value to the services offered to their exhibitors by differentiating themselves from their competitors. In the context of these programs, the Exhibition Organizers invite and host selected Foreign Trade Visitors who constitute potential Buyers of the products/services represented in every field exhibition. The invited trade visitors (hereof “Hosted Buyers”) book pre-arranged business appointments (b2b meetings) with the Exhibitors with the aim to reach business agreements/transactions with the exhibitors, thus enhancing the export activities of the enterprises. TIF-HELEXPO has been organizing such Hosted Buyers Programs for the past two decades, in order to make its Trade Fairs and Exhibitions more competitive on an international level. Since 2014, these Hosted Buyers programs have indeed been reinforced and re-designed in a more coordinated and systematic way for all of the Trade fairs and exhibitions of TIF-HELEXPO. It should indicatively be mentioned that during the period 2014–2016, more than 1.700 foreign trade visitors from all over the world have been hosted by TIF-HELEXPO, while more than 17.000 b2b meetings have been conducted and important business agreements between greek and foreign companies have been signed. With the experience gained through the implementation of these Hosted Buyers Programs it has become obvious that the hosting of Foreign Trade Visitors has a great impact on the touristic development of the host city, Thessaloniki, in addition to its undisputed business results. The present report is an attempt to investigate the contribution of the specific Hosted Buyers Programs to the touristic development of the city of Thessaloniki and to reach conclusions which will contribute to the maximization of the touristic contribution of these programs. For the assessment of the contribution of the programs in tourism, primary research was carried out with the use of questionnaires which were sent to all the Trade Visitors who were hosted in Thessaloniki during the period 2014–2016, in the framework of the Hosted Buyers Programs of TIF-HELEXPO.