On May 10th, 2023 at a beautiful location near Nijmegen, a large group op America enthousiasts and experts came together to network with each other and to exchange ideas and thoughts on how we, all together, can promote travel to the United States and Canada. This informal get together was organized by the association Visit USA The Netherlands and the Canadian Marketing Committee (CMC) and was sponsored by JetBlue.

When hearing the word ‘America’ people often think about the United States, but Canada is also a part of this. These two countries have much more in common than you might think. Beautiful nature, wildlife, buzzing cities, picturesque towns and much more that makes these countries the ideal holiday destination. Up until now, Visit USA The Netherlands and the CMC has always operated individually, but for this event they have joined forces. Both two boards and about 50 guests from the travel industry were present during the get together.

The afternoon was kicked off with a short speech by the presidents of Visit USA Netherlands (Birgitte Bosma) & CMC (Roderick Aalbers) followed by a presentation of JetBlue (Andre van der Sluis). Then all attention went to the guest speaker of the afternoon: Mart Smeets! In about 45 minutes, Mart took us on a journey through his years of travel history in North America, based on gripping anecdotes. It was the little details he managed to tell that made the story come alive!

As icing on the cake, everyone present went home with one of Mart’s books ‘My America’ or ‘O Canada’, signed by the man himself. In addition, there was one person who went home extra happy, namely the winner of the 2 planetickets with JetBlue to New York or Boston.

Visit USA Netherlands and the CMC look back on a successful North America afternoon. This first edition is a great starting point for an annual tradition!