The 31st Germany Travel Mart (GTM) was organized by The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) to present “Destination Germany” to representatives of the International travel industry and the media from 31st April -3rd May 2005 in Wiesbaden. The host cities for the GTM were Wiesbaden, Mainz and Frankfurt. 370 German Exhibitors and more than 630 travel industry buyers from around 45 countries met at the Rhein-Main-Hallen exhibition centre to close deals, make new contracts and gain an insight into the German incoming Tourist market.
According to the GNTB figures, this year, the largest delegation of international travel industry buyers attended from the USA, with 61 participants. The Chinese delegation is in second place, with 52 representatives, and the United Kingdom is in third place with 48 representatives. There were 50 representatives from the German Travel Industry (compared to 32 in 2004) who attended the GTM in order to find out about the latest products and services on offer to tourists in Germany. And in terms of exhibitor numbers, the response from the host Rhine-Main region has been extremely positive.
Mrs. Heike Murad, GCC Manager States, The German National Tourist Board in Dubai, commented on the latest trends in the German incoming tourism, “In the period from January to February 2005, we saw a real boom in incoming travel to Germany from the Arab Gulf States, an important source market for the future, rose in the first two months of the year by 13.3 per cent to more than 53,000 overnight stays. We see a further growth potential of 5-10% by the end of 2005. The number of overnight stays by international visitors in Germany will top 46 million in 2005. Germany aims to position itself as one of the top-most holiday travel destinations on the International Tourism front. The year 2004 was our best year with 440 million arrivals and a 9% growth rate. It’s important for us to communicate city tourism, shopping tourism, events, anniversaries, holiday packages for families to our world-wide Tourists. The German people are not only organizers but a service nation. We have attractive upcoming events in 2005, to name a few, one million visitors arrive in Cologne to witness the Pope Benedict XVI, 20th World Youth Day, Einstein’s Year 2005, 30 years of the German Fairytale Route. In 2006, the FIFA World Cup will be hosted in 12 cities in Germany. In 2009, Germany will be marking the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. In October 2010, Munich will be celebrating 200 years Oktoberfest.”
She further elaborated, “8 national teams will battle for the FIFA World Cup in 12 cities in Germany starting 9th June-9th July, 2006. Franz Beckenbower will host the event and lots of cultural activities will take place with the initiative of Chancellor Schroeder. 404,000 of a total of 620,000 tickets have already been sold. We expect the 2006 FIFA World Cup to generate around 1.7 per cent more overnight stays across 2006 as a whole. The FIFA theme is “A time to make friends”. United Germany is looking forward to this event and it’s a great opportunity for us to present ourselves, show our service and friendliness.”
