The International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF), in conjunction with the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) have named Greg Bows, Founder and Managing Director of African Impact, as the winner of the IHIF 2015 Young Leader Award.
Peter Kienast has been appointed the position of General Manager of Hotel de Rome, the Rocco Forte hotel located on the illustrious Bebelplatz in Berlin. German-born Mr Kienast has an impressive 25 years experience in some of the most exclusive five star hotels across the world. Overseeing all aspects of the Berlin award winning hotel, Mr Kienast will be responsible for day to day operations and strategic direction of the hotel, including the 145 rooms and suites, the newly launched La Banca restaurant and bar, the historic ballroom, the seasonal roof terrace as well as the Hotel de Rome Spa and meeting and conferencing offerings.
The Gay & Lesbian Travel Pavilion, the world's largest LGBT platform, welcomes new exhibitors – discussion round at the ITB Berlin Convention on the prospects for LGBT social media campaigns – a cult event: the ITB TomOnTour Party on 4 March 2015
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:HOT) today announced that it is expanding its footprint in Germany with the signing of the Sheraton Berlin Grand Hotel Esplanade. The franchise agreement with Esplanade Operation GmbH, a subsidiary of Host Hotels & Resorts' European joint venture, marks the conversion of the existing Grand Hotel Esplanade to a Sheraton hotel. The hotel continues to be operated by EVENT Hotel Group, which also holds a minority interest in the property.
The International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) continues to set the industry standard for conference speakers and programme content. Information on some of the topical and engaging sessions new for IHIF 2015 will be detailed over the following weeks.
More and more companies are exploiting the wide-ranging impact of travel blogs in order to target customers. At the upcoming Blogger Speed Dating event ITB Berlin will be offering members of the travel industry an opportunity to meet with experienced travel bloggers from around the world for the third time. During the eight to ten-minute time slots both participants will be able to briefly introduce themselves, discuss topics and business, and establish initial contact.
The ITB Berlin Convention looks at a new trend, the sharing economy – leading experts give their opinion on the future of travel marketing, mobile marketing and film location tours – admission is free for visitors to ITB Berlin
Travel-hungry Europeans are defying local crises and political unrest, having undertaken record numbers of trips this year. Compared to last year, in 2014 the number of foreign trips rose by three per cent, reaching a new record. According to the ITB World Travel Trends Report, conducted by IPK International and commissioned by the world's leading travel trade show, destinations such as Greece, Spain and the UK profited from this boom. All signs point to growth in 2015 as well.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), the voice of the global business travel industry, and Project ICARUS recently announced the winners of the second European Sustainability Outstanding Achievement Awards at GBTA Conference 2014 Berlin. The awards recognize travel buyers, suppliers, intermediaries and teams who can demonstrate outstanding leadership, innovation and commitment to delivering best-in-class sustainability programs, products and services across Europe. "The quality of entries exceeded our expectation, once again, and clearly demonstrates that companies across Europe are seeing sustainable business travel and meetings programs as a sure way to optimize travel costs, and generate a significant return on investment," said Bernard Harrop, head of sustainability for Project ICARUS. The winners in each category are:
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – today announced plans to introduce the Berlin Charter, a charter for the business travel industry, designed to further the relationships between airlines and buyers in light of continually evolving pricing and distribution strategies such as IATA's NDC. This new initiative was announced today by Paul Tilstone, GBTA senior vice president of global development, to 850 delegates at the GBTA Europe Conference being held in Berlin. Tilstone announced that the Berlin Charter will be finalized for full member review by the end of the year. The Charter will restate the managed travel principles that GBTA originally submitted to IATA during the US Department of Transportation's (DoT) review of Resolution 787, an IATA project proposing a new set of distribution standards for the airline community, entitled New Distribution Capability (NDC). GBTA will be asking all airline CEOs to endorse the charter to reinforce the vital relationship between the corporate travel buying community with airline leaders as they develop forward distribution and pricing strategies. "The creation of the Berlin Charter is the next logical step for GBTA to reinforce the needs of the corporate travel buyer as further changes start to emerge through the implementation of NDC," said Tilstone. "It will allow us to ensure that the airline community truly understands the need for control, transparency and data of airline spend as their distribution strategies evolve. Travel buyers will understand which airlines are fully committed to relationships with buyers based on these principles." Included in the announcement was a commitment by the GBTA Foundation to launch the next version of its Airline Request for Proposal (RFP) toolkit. This new version will include ancillary services, distribution channels and airline surcharging and will be completed by the end of 2015. Speaking about plans for a re-launch of the Aviation RFP Toolkit, Daphne Bryant, executive director of the GBTA Foundation said, "The toolkit will be re-designed to complement the Berlin Charter by providing a pre-contractual framework for the airline and corporate buyer to establish the nature of their relationship, affirming the services the buyer needs and those the airline wishes to provide and through which channels they both wish to work."GBTA plans to begin discussions with airlines regarding the Berlin Chapter once internal GBTA committee and leadership processes have been completed.
The GBTA Foundation, the education and research arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), today announces the results of its latest GBTA BTI™ Outlook – Western Europe report, a semi-annual analysis of the five most critical business travel markets in Europe: Germany, the UK, France, Italy, and Spain. These five markets serve as a good barometer of the health of the entire European business travel market. The report, sponsored by Visa Inc., includes the GBTA BTI™, a proprietary index of business travel spending that distills market performance over a period of time. Key highlights of the report include:
Emile Bootsma is the new General Manager in the Hotel Adlon Kempinski, succeeding Oliver Eller, who will continue his career at the Baltschug Kempinski Moscow. Mr. Bootsma, a native of the Netherlands, spent four years at the Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest, and he aslo managed the similarly important Kempinski property Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Munich, Germany. Prior to this he worked for Arabella Sheraton in Cape Town, South Africa, where he was responsible for Food & Beverage operations.
It's the ultimate luxury, a perfect combination of style, tradition and culture: The 5 star superior hotel Regent Berlin, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Berlin and the Berlin based fine china manufacturer KPM have teamed up to offer a package which leaves no wish unfulfilled.
Scandic is increasing its presence in Germany by taking over the Alsterhof Hotel in Berlin. The hotel has 217 rooms, which have just undergone an extensive refurbishment costing EUR 8 million, and is strategically located close to all the shopping and entertainment of western Berlin. When Scandic takes over the hotel on 1 September this year, it will change its name to Scandic Berlin Kurfürstendamm.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and Design Hotels AG have started negotiations regarding the conclusion of a domination agreement (Beherrschungsvertrag) with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. being the dominating company and Design Hotels AG being the dependent company. These negotiations will be concluded shortly. After the finalization of the valuation work by the jointly commissioned valuation expert, Design Hotels AG and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. agreed today, subject to the final result of the assessment by the court appointed auditor and the approval of the supervisory board of Design Hotels AG, that the domination agreement will provide for a cash compensation pursuant to Section 305 of the German Stock Corporation Act ("AktG") in the amount of EUR 2.25 per share and a guaranteed dividend pursuant to Section 304 AktG in the amount of EUR 0.10 gross per share (EUR 0.08 net per share) for each full financial year. The domination agreement must be signed by the authorized representatives of both companies and requires the approval of the general shareholders' meeting of Design Hotels AG, which will presumably take place on 21 July 2014, and registration with the commercial register of Design Hotels AG.
The German capital is about to acquire a new Steigenberger Hotel in the form of a First Class Hotel located in Berlin's rapidly growing Europacity district near to the main station and Chancellery. The Steigenberger Hotel Am Kanzleramt is a four-star Superior Hotel that extends over a total floor area of approximately 23,000 m2 and offers 339 rooms including 23 suites.
African Extravaganza - Radisson Blu Berlin welcomed delegates of the 17th International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Opening-Night Reception - Hosted By Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. The International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) is the leading meeting place for the Worldwide hotel investment community. Held every March in Berlin IHIF attracts over 1700 industry players from over 60 countries. The three-day event consists of an educational programme, an exhibition and unrivalled networking opportunities. IHIF attracts the industry's most senior members and has become known as the place where deals are done. Organised by Questex Media Group in partnership with Bench Events, IHIF has firmly established its reputation as the leading industry event and is influential in the shaping the direction of the hotel industry
The International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC), in partnership with the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF), presented Patricia Gallardo of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts with the 2014 Young Leader Award on March 5. Celebrating its sixth year, the award recognizes the outstanding contribution to the industry by a young hospitality leader.
The "Best Exhibitor Award" for the category "Travel Support & Media" crowned protel's performance at the ITB 2014, in Berlin. For the German hotel software provider, the main trade-fair for the international tourism industry has once again provided the perfect setting to strike up a conversation with clients and business partners as well as present new hotel management software solutions.
Optimism about hotel development, financing and property values prevailed among the 2,000 delegates from 73 countries who attended the 17th annual International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) , which took place last week at the InterContinental Berlin.