Our Story

New Deal Europe was born in 2018 when 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’, were at a trade fair in London. Both realised that the region was under represented at the fair and resolved to do something about it. The idea to start the first ever South East Europe focused travel trade event started to take shape. 

The beginnings were not without their challenges.

Several of the 12 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 slow and complicated.

However, following a successful partnership with Jacobs Media Group, and having weathered the storms of Covid, the travel trade event was born. New Deal Europe Marketplace & Forum is now the largest and most important annual global B2B marketplace focused on 12 countries of South East Europe. The event, which takes place in London in early Spring, delivers around 1,200 meetings in one day alongside three educational destination presentations. The Forum seminar consistently attracts high profile keynote speakers who debate and present on topics impacting tourism in the region. In 2024 New Deal Europe has teamed up with experienced MICE director Simon Young to deliver a highly professional service to all the delegates, ensuring that NDE continues to be a must-attend event for anyone delivering tourism to this rapidly growing region.

Thanks to the success of the London event, New Deal Europe has also been able to take its concept out to the destinations. 

Partnering with Iceberg Exhibitions in October 2022 allowed NDE to deliver their first B2B Marketplace and Forum in the region: ‘B2Balkans’ in Albania. This has been followed by a marketplace event in Croatia in October 2023, ‘Tourism 365’, in partnership with Julius Rose. Another ‘B2Balkans’ Albanian event took place in January 2024, and autumn r Tourism 365 will take place in October 2024. All marketplaces have been attended by main stakeholders of tourism in the host countries and have been followed by extremely successful tour operator fam trips with major brand names attending. Discussions are currently taking place to deliver further marketplaces and fam trips in other countries of the region. Watch this space…. 

In addition to organising events, the directors of New Deal Europe are involved in promoting the region through the other pillars of their offering, namely: education, media, consultation and representation. They are regular panellists and speakers at tourism conferences focused on the SE European region, particularly with regard to sustainable tourism development. Moreover, they represent several of the region’s national tourism boards and destinations, promoting them in the English-speaking markets, including the very well received, ‘Essential Balkans’ in partnership with Visit Europe which was focused on driving high yield business from North America.

New Deal Europe has partnerships with several organisations to drive not only more tourism, but also the right kind of tourism, to the region. See the partnerships page of the website for more information. They are the regional representative of the European Tourism Association (ETOA) in their Adriatic and Balkans region, and are also proud signatories of the Tourism Manifesto by the European Travel Commission.

Robert and Tine, the Directors of New Deal Europe, would like to thank you for all your encouragement and support. The NDE mission through 2024 and beyond is to continue to support our partners in innovative ways, spreading the word about all that the exciting region of South East Europe has to offer, and growing tourism in the destinations in the right way for a sustainable and prosperous future.