High demand by exhibitors again – Around 10,000 exhibiting companies from 186 countries and regions – Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the first German federal state to be the official partner region of the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show® – Revolutionary forms of travel, overtourism and digitalization are key topics at the ITB Berlin Convention – Focus on luxury travel – The Medical Tourism segment expands – Travel Technology is booming – ITB: a new international umbrella brand
ITB Berlin reflects worldwide dynamic developments and growth in the travel industry. From 7 to 11 March 2018, the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show® will again be the industry’s meeting place and must-see event, devoting itself to innovative and forward-looking trends in the travel industry, politics and business. In the future, ITB will present itself as an international umbrella brand and focus not only on promoting the annual event in Berlin. This re-orientation on a global scale means a concentration of three formats, the trade shows in Germany (ITB Berlin), Singapore (ITB Asia) and China (ITB China), under one label. At the 52nd edition of ITB Berlin around 10,000 tourism companies from 186 countries and regions will be represented on an area covering 160,000 square metres at the Messe Berlin fairgrounds. Over 80 percent of the exhibitors are from abroad. Once again the organisers expect more than 100,000 international trade visitors seeking prosperous business opportunities as well as many thousand members of the public on the weekend, who will be able to find inspiration for their next trip.
”In 2018 ITB Berlin remains strongly in touch with the industry’s trends. We provide a forum for pressing issues such as overtourism, revolutionary forms of travel and digitalization as well as topical themes such as luxury travel, technology and sustainability. ITB Berlin has firmly established itself as an international brand and above all stands for acquiring industry contacts from around the world and industry knowledge that is first-hand. It is the logical consequence of positioning ourselves as the leading market force and opinion-former of the global travel industry“, said Dr. Christian Göke, CEO of Messe Berlin.
The focus is on this year’s partner region Mecklenburg-Vorpommern which, taking as its slogan ‘The Spirit of Nature’, will have information on its wide range of products in a number of locations, including Hall 6.2. and 4.1. The German federal state will also be organising the big opening ceremony on the eve of ITB Berlin at the CityCube Berlin. For the first time since ITB Berlin began the event will leave a zero carbon footprint. Manuela Schwesig, Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: “The World’s Leading Travel Trade Show gives us a unique opportunity to showcase the attractions of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to the world. The state will present itself as a modern, successful and extremely diverse holiday region. In particular, we would like to welcome more international guests to our state“.
ITB Berlin Convention 2018: Top-Notch knowledge from industry experts
From 7 to 10 March 2018, at several sessions, the leading think tank of the global travel industry ITB Berlin Convention will be devoting itself to a number of topics, including overtourism, revolutionary forms of transport for business and private travel, plus the challenges of and future prospects for artificial intelligence in the travel sector. Together with Zambia, the Convention & Culture Partner, and the WTCF, the co-host of ITB Berlin Convention, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the partner region of ITB Berlin, will officially open this years convention program in the morning of 7 March. Afterwards, in a keynote speech Jane Jie Sun, CEO of Ctrip.com International Ltd., will examine the topical subject of ‘Tourism: the Gateway to Global Peace and Prosperity’.
On Thursday, 8 March, at the ITB Marketing & Distribution Day, high-ranked representatives of the international tourism industry will discuss future trends such as sharing economy and big data. In his keynote speech on ’The Evolution of Airbnb and how Global Travel is Changing’, Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Airbnb and chairman of Airbnb China, will provide an update on the latest developments at Airbnb and an insight into the changing travel market. Afterwards, in an ITB CEO interview with Philip C. Wolf, founder of Phocuswright and serial board director, Mark Okerstrom, the new CEO of Expedia, will respond to a number of questions: What are the global growth strategies of this travel industry giant and what new technologies and market challenges does Expedia face?
On Wednesday, 7 March, ITB Destination Day 1 will look at ’Overtourism’, currently a much-discussed topic. Mato Franković, mayor of Dubrovnik, a representative of the city of Barcelona and Frans van der Avert, CEO of Amsterdam Marketing, will reveal their recipes for success and the lessons learned for managing tourism destinations. On Wednesday afternoon, attention will focus on an up-to-the-minute topic, namely the 'The Revolution of Travel'. Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. (HTT) and founder and CEO of JumpStarter Inc., will talk about tomorrow’s transport system and the future role of Elon Musk’s hyperloop technology. At a further session the ‘Revolution of Travel’ will become reality. Technology pioneers including Dirk Ahlborn and Alexander Zosel, co-founder of Volocopter GmbH, will provide an update on their revolutionary projects and discuss commercial prospects and business models. The latest findings of the market survey conducted by ITB Berlin in collaboration with Travelzoo will be eagerly awaited. In this survey for ITB Berlin the international publisher of exclusive travel deals researched the opinions of travellers from Europe, America, Asia and Australia on new forms of transport and the approval ratings they gave.
About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention
ITB Berlin 2018 will be taking place from Wednesday, 7 to Sunday, 11 March, and from Wednesday to Friday will be open to trade visitors only. ITB Berlin is the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show. In 2017 a total of 10,000 companies and organizations from 184 countries exhibited their products and services to around 169,000 visitors, who included 109,000 trade visitors. Parallel with the show the ITB Berlin Convention, the Leading Travel Industry Think Tank, will be held from Wednesday, 7 to Saturday, 10 March. Zambia is the Convention & Culture Partner of ITB Berlin 2018. The World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) is Co-Host of the ITB Berlin Convention. Ctrip.com International, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey are Platinum Sponsors. Admission to the ITB Berlin Convention is free for trade visitors, media representatives and exhibitors. More details are available at www.itb-berlin.com, www.itb-convention.com.
Courtesy of ITB Berlin.