On the 27th and 28th of November the EU Commission organized the first EU-China Virtual Travel Fair on cultural tourism (VTF) as a contribution to the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY).

The fair on Cultural Tourism is an initiative to facilitate the B2B matchmaking of the travel industry between China and Europe via a fully immersive virtual reality platform that ensures meaningful life-like engagement amongst participants via avatar.

Funded by the European Union, under the auspices of the European Commission and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, in partnership with Unesco, Council of Europe, ETC and National Geographic, the 1st EU-China Virtual Travel Fair on Cultural Tourism is an initiative created within the framework of the 2018 China-Europe Tourism Year, to facilitate, on a permanent basis, the business-to-business matchmaking of the travel industry between China and Europe with the aim of promoting joint initiatives to boost travel and cultural exchange.

A huge number of booths were offered to key EU-China non-commercial actors focusing on trans-European products. The Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe was one of the selected exhibitors as well as AEPJ.

With AEPJ's booth the network had the chance to showcase its members and the Jewish Heritage to Chinese travel trade in an innovative and interactive way. Brochures, presentations, pictures and web links were presented in a very futuristic way. Every visitor created his or her unique virtual profile and 3D avatar. They seamlessly accessed the environment on different devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets or VR glasses, and were online simultaneously to engage with each other: people saw each other in the environment, met, exchanged business card, chated and talked in virtual reality.

This virtual fair was another new platform for AEPJ to show the richness of history, culture, art and Jewish Heritage that connects countries and people across Europe.