In the period 14 – 17 February 2010, a group of leading Dutch tour operators and journalists from the most renown Dutch media visited Macedonia in order to get introduced to its touristic potential, natural beauties and holiday possibilities.

During their visit they had a press conference together with the Minister of Economy H.E. Mr. Fatmir Besimi and Ambassador Simone Filippini. They had meetings with the mayors of Ohrid, Struga and Debar, representatives of the Macedonian Agency for Promotion of Tourism, Macedonian hotel managers and tour operators. After visiting a number of tourist attractions in Skopje, Mavrovo, Debar, Ohrid, Struga and Prilep and tasting many Macedonian traditional dishes and Macedonian wines, they left the country with a positive impression of its promissing touristic potential.

The visit was organised in view of the newly established charter flights from Amsterdam to Skopje and Ohrid and vice versa implemented by Transavia, daughter company of the Dutch national carrier KLM and one of the biggest and most trusted charter companies from the Netherlands in co-operation with Dutch-Macedonian tour operator Karatanova and Schiphol Airport Amsterdam.

Only a few weeks after the promotion of the new flights in January at the Holiday Fair in Utrecht over 3.000 seats (out of the currently existing 5.500) have been booked by tourist agencies, and 150 seats have been sold.

The visit of the Dutch tour operators and media representatives is of great importance for the start of organised co-operation between the Netherlands and Macedonia in the field of tourism development which can only be achieved with a joint approach by the tour operators, tourist agencies and governmental agencies from the two countries.

Links to media articles:
 http://www.time.mk/cluster/268422d9a1/so-drzavna-pomosh-do-40-000-holandski-turisti.html
 http://www.mia.com.mk/default.aspx?vId=71544077&lId=1
 http://www.sitel.com.mk/video/biznis/charter-letovi-za-holanski-turisti
 http://alsat.mk/ekonomija/139126.html
 http://www.tvm.mk/struga/vratat-holandski-turisti.html
 http://www.vecer.com.mk/?ItemID=C8F847BF69949A478AEB37DF7D3A34E7
 http://ohridon.com/m-vesti/515.html
 http://www.dnevnik.com.mk/default.asp?ItemID=715C8EA22873E04E93AFC1A8B9105BF2