Our Story

New Deal Europe was born at a trade fair in London in 2018. Tine Murn, a former Director of the Slovenian Tourist Board in the UK, and Robert Dee, a lifelong Balkanophile, who’s long career in tourism began as a tour escort on Cosmos Tourama’s ‘Jewels of Yugoslavia’, both realised that the region was under represented and resolved to do something about it. It seemed crazy that one of the most popular destinations on the planet did not have an event dedicated to driving tourism to it, and the idea to start the first ever South East Europe focused travel trade event started to take shape.

It was not without its challenges. Several of the 11 countries of the region did not have a representation office in London. Some had National Tourist Boards at home while others had Tourism Ministries taking care of marketing. Others had nothing at all. The pathway to spreading the word was difficult and complicated. 

Two years later, in partnership with experienced travel fair organisers, Jacobs Media Group, and with sponsorship from The Times of London, New Deal Europe was a sold out travel fair in London ready to welcome its first delegates. Then Covid struck. The event was postponed to October 2020 and relaunched as a global and virtual event. It was hugely successful delivering around 1,200 meetings and a series of keynote seminars on tourism in the South East Europe and Balkan region.

The event had grown three fold by the time of the second Virtual NDE Marketplace and Forum in April 2021, welcoming 248 delegates from 38 countries, with buyers attending from all parts of the globe. Moldova was also added to the NDE portfolio of destinations, bringing the total number of exhibiting countries to 12.

2022 finally saw our first live event in London, but of course it was not without its challenges: a few weeks earlier war began in Ukraine, which also impacted the ability of our regional delegates to obtain visas. The event also coincided with the week of the highest covid infection rate in the UK, which affected many companies who were already stretched with staffing shortages. Consequently, at the last minute, the fully live event was altered to become a hybrid style event, and its successful outcome was thanks to some great work by our hugely experienced support team from Jacobs Media Group. 

Six months later, in October 2022 we partnered with Iceberg Exhibitions to deliver our first B2B Marketplace and Forum in the region: B2Balkans in Albania. We plan to grow this aspect of New Deal Europe and have B2B events throughout our region in the future. As it became possible to meet in person once again we took on our first representation roles as New Deal Europe. At USTOA in November 2022 we were proud to introduce our partners to the travel trade in the USA and Canada.

In 2023 we are looking forward to hosting our first fully live New Deal Europe Marketplace and Forum in London, taking place on 28th March 2023. 

Thank you for all your encouragement and support in helping us get to this position. We will continue through 2023 and beyond to support our partners in innovative ways, spreading the word about all that the exciting region of South East Europe has to offer.