THE INTERNATIONAL TOURISM EXCHANGE (ITB)
From Johannes Bardong
On the 40th anniversary of the International Tourism Fair (ITB) held from 8 – 12th March in Berlin, a new exhibitor record was reached: 183 countries with 10,856 exhibitors participated in this year in the world’s largest tourist fair.
After five days there were not less than 160,000 visitors. They had 26 halls to choose from when looking for information about travel trends. Over 1,000 prize winning contests were held and culinary delicacies offered by over 10,000 exhibitors. On the huge fairground countries, regions, institutions and enterprises presented their tourist attractions in a 150,000 square meter complex on several levels. The exhibition also included congresses and discussions on various specialized topics. From Wednesday until Friday noon, when the doors were opened to the general public, the fair was reserved for over 94,000 business visitors. The professional visitors could meet, find contacts, initiate business and make deals before the large host of visitors filled the halls.
At the end of the first day the invitation to the opening celebration of the exhibition compensated for our long and troublesome journey to Berlin. It was hosted by Greece which spared no expense or effort to bring back the sun into our minds. After some speeches by local and international guests it presented a fabulous show. The speakers gave an optimistic outlook for the development of the ever increasing tourism sector even if the world seems to be dominated by crises, disasters and risks. They stressed that there is more to tourism than money: it leads to international understanding and promotes peace more effectively than some conventions.
Greece is one of the main travel markets for Germany as an export and tourism world champion. It presented itself as a scenic and cultural destination with the slogan "Experience your myth in Greece". The islands, mountains and coastlines are suitable for beach holidays. The country can also be explored by trekking, sailing, heritage tours, health tourism and pilgrimages. The evening ended with an excellent buffet. Apart from Germany, Greece had the largest stand which occupied most of one of the European halls.
Germany presented itself with its regions in several halls often showing the coming Football World Cup Championship. The regions of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg had major stands. Hesse used two actors skilfully playing Emperor Wilhelm and his friend Bretano who promoted the region.
ITB was not only visited by more than 100 tourism ministers of participating countries but also by the Chancellor Mrs. Merkel and the Minister of Economy, Mr. Glos.
Arabs gained 35% more of exhibition space
The Islamic-Arabic world presented itself in the two halls reserved for the Middle East. Compared to the previous year the number of Arab tourists visiting Germany increased. The exhibitor’s space for Arab countries rose by 35 percent. For the first time Afghanistan was present at the ITB. Among the most impressive stands were those of Syria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. Most important for the German market were Turkey and Egypt. The stands of Morocco and Tunisia were beautiful to look at.. Tunisia drew attention to the participation of its football team in the forthcoming world championship.
As representatives of Islamic Tourism Magazine we were able to attend the 8th German-Arab Tourism Forum hosted by the Arab-German Association for Trade and Industry (Ghorfa). Altogether 21 tourism experts and representatives of tourism enterprises and institutions gave their opinion about ongoing subjects in the tourism sector. Among the participants were the ministers of tourism of Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Sudan. Topics discussed by the panels included the trends in the tourist industry, more efficient destination management, public private partnerships, crisis management and the image of the Arab world in the media. The Sultanate of Oman, this year’s partner country for the forum, presented some interesting projects. We distributed our magazine to lecturers and the audience as well as ministers of tourism.
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