Business worth billions of dollars was transacted at last month’s ITB Berlin in Germany with the 44th edition registering a slight increase in the number of exhibitors while attracting visitors from as many as 180 countries over the course of the event.
Dr Christian Göke, chief operating officer, Messe Berlin, said: “ITB Berlin 2010 broke records despite the difficult overall economic situation. More than 11,000 exhibitors placed a total of more than €6 billion ($8.2 billion) worth of orders. The industry demonstrated resilience and placed its trust in the strong brand that is ITB Berlin, which once again was able to gather all the leading players in the market. The proportion of decision-makers attending this year’s fair was greatly in excess of 50 per cent.”
Exhibitors totalled 11,127 companies from 187 countries, up from 11,098 last year, and there were 110,953 trade visitors from 180 countries. As in 2009, 45 per cent of the trade visitors came from abroad. This year there was a considerably higher number from Asia. Due to a well-chosen range of topics, the ITB Berlin Convention once again emphasised its role as the travel industry’s foremost discussion forum and think tank at which attendance rose yet again, with 12,500 delegates taking part.
Taleb Rifai, General Secretary of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), said: “As the world is experiencing a period of profound change – ranging from the economy to the environment – tourism, as a truly global activity, can make a meaningful contribution in these times of transformation. Against this backdrop, ITB 2010 has again proven to be the ideal setting to showcase the resilience and innovation capacity of the tourism industry. UNWTO is happy to partner with ITB and together contribute to a stronger and more responsible tourism sector.”
Klaus Laepple, president of the German Tourism Industry Federation (DRV) and the Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry (BTW) added: “Once again, the world’s largest travel trade show has demonstrated how important exchanging opinions and meeting people is, particularly in times of crisis. The rise in the number of exhibitors and visitors who attended ITB Berlin shows that in difficult times those representing the tourism industry need to keep in touch. However, the fair is more than a place for meeting and holding talks. During the five days of the fair joint ventures were negotiated, agreements were reached and business was done. We foresee that in the medium to long term, the travel sector will once again experience sustained growth. We expect the market to further settle down in 2010.”
The next ITB Berlin will take place from March 9 to 13, 2011. The partner country will be Poland.