A full day of back-to-back meetings can sound intensive. But for tour operators developing a destination, it can also replace weeks of research, introductory emails and separate appointments.
A focused digital sales workshop brings relevant suppliers together in one place. Buyers can compare products, ask practical questions and quickly determine which conversations are worth continuing.
The Arctic Sweden Digital Summit in September 2026 demonstrated what this format can achieve. During one working day, 53 international buyers met 35 tourism businesses from Arctic Sweden in 386 pre-arranged one-to-one meetings.
After the event, one participating buyer described it as:
The value, however, lies in more than the number of meetings.
When researching a destination independently, it is easy to encounter the same established hotels, attractions and activities repeatedly.
A destination-focused workshop can provide access to a broader mix of businesses: larger companies with established international distribution as well as smaller local suppliers that may be less visible online.
For tour operators, this creates opportunities to discover experiences that can differentiate an itinerary or appeal to a particular customer segment.
Smaller suppliers may offer precisely the kind of personal and distinctive experiences buyers are seeking. Yet finding them independently can require considerable research, especially when their international visibility is still developing.
A carefully curated workshop makes these businesses easier to discover and gives buyers the opportunity to speak directly with the people behind them.
Laponice
A website can show what a supplier offers, but it rarely answers every question a tour operator needs to ask.
Who is the product designed for? Can it be adapted for an individual traveller or a small group? What are the operational dates, capacity and booking conditions? How does the experience fit into a wider itinerary?
A short conversation can reveal whether there is a genuine commercial fit much faster than an exchange of general brochures and emails.
At the Arctic Sweden Digital Summit, 72% of responding buyers saw high potential among the participating regional partners for their customers. The remaining 28% saw medium potential; none selected little or no potential.
This does not mean every supplier will suit every buyer. It shows the value of bringing together businesses and tour operators whose offers, markets and interests have already been considered during the matchmaking process.
The quality of a digital workshop depends not only on who participates, but also on how well buyers and suppliers can prepare.
Clear information about the meeting schedule, technical access and participating companies helps buyers decide who they want to meet and which questions they need to ask. Supplier profiles and presentations can provide useful context before the appointments and serve as reference material afterwards.
Yahnny San Luis-Wallgren from Nomado DMC particularly valued the preparation surrounding the Arctic Sweden Digital Summit:
This preparation allows the limited meeting time to be used for relevant questions and meaningful discussion rather than basic introductions or technical clarification.
Destination workshops are particularly useful when a tour operator already knows a region but wants to look beyond its established season.
A buyer may be familiar with winter in Arctic Sweden or summer in Fjord Norway, for example, without knowing which products are available during the rest of the year.
Talking directly with local suppliers can reveal:
This makes the meeting relevant both for tour operators entering a destination for the first time and for those looking to refresh or extend an existing programme.
Håkan Stenlund
Finding a promising product is only one part of product development. Tour operators also need to understand how different suppliers work.
During a focused workshop, buyers can compare several potential partners within the same day. They can look at factors such as product quality, responsiveness, capacity, commercial conditions and suitability for their customers.
The Arctic Sweden feedback suggests that the matchmaking worked well: 94% of responding buyers said they were able to arrange meetings with the suppliers they wanted to meet for the most part. The one-to-one meetings themselves received particularly strong ratings.
The purpose is not necessarily to select one supplier immediately. It is to build a clearer picture of the destination and identify the companies that merit a more detailed follow-up.
Tourism products are delivered by people, not product sheets.
Speaking directly with the supplier gives the buyer an impression of how the company communicates, how well it understands its own product and whether it appears ready to work with international partners.
This is especially important for small-scale and experience-based tourism. The host, guide or business owner may be a central part of the guest experience. Meeting that person helps the tour operator understand what their customers would actually encounter in the destination.
For Yahnny San Luis-Wallgren, the personal enthusiasm of the suppliers was one of the memorable aspects of the Arctic Sweden event:
A short digital meeting cannot replace experiencing the product personally. It can, however, help a buyer decide which partners they would like to meet again, include in a future itinerary or visit during a familiarisation trip.
Not every meeting needs to result in a contract to be valuable.
A productive first conversation may lead to a request for rates, a product manual, a sample itinerary or a longer follow-up appointment. It may reveal potential for a future season rather than the buyer’s current programme. Sometimes it simply confirms that the supplier and buyer are not the right match.
That clarity also saves time.
The objective of a workshop is therefore not to complete the entire sales process in one day. It is to make the beginning of that process more focused.
Tour operators leave with a shortlist of relevant contacts, a better understanding of the destination and concrete ideas to investigate further. Suppliers learn what buyers need and where their products may fit.
The most promising conversations can then continue with greater purpose.
Header: Asaf Kliger