ITB Business Travel Forum: Valuable knowledge for travel managers
The latest trends and developments in business travel – Focus on the impact of digitalisation and globalisation
The latest trends and developments in business travel – Focus on the impact of digitalisation and globalisation
ITB Career Center features wide-ranging information on university courses, starting a career and advanced training – The German Federal Employment Agency is the exclusive partner again – The ITB Berlin Convention features the Young Professionals Day and a new event: the Company SlamBerlin, 25 January 2018 – In search of tomorrow's talents: this year, the ITB Career Center is again offering students, graduates and those in search of a new career all kinds of opportunities to find out about their job chances in the tourism industry. The place to head is hall 11.1, where more than 50 national and international exhibitors will be represented, including universities, colleges and professional academies presenting tourism and advanced training courses, as well as employers in search of industry newcomers. This year, international participation in the hall will be even higher than in past years. Universities from Hong Kong and Latvia will be represented for the first time. On Thursday, 8 March 2018 and on Saturday, 10 March 2018 at an elevator pitch presenting bachelor's and master's degree courses, visitors can get a first impression of the universities and their academic studies.
Annually, around 250 thousand people from 177 countries receive medical treatment in Germany. Around 100 thousand foreign patients are admitted into German hospitals. It is estimated that between 40 to 45% of foreign patients arrive ton Germany specifically for medical treatment. The European country receives more than 1.2 million euros annually as an income from medical tourism.
With these funds, hospitals employ more personnel, buy equipment and much more which is then available to all patients, local and international.
Most patients come from neighboring countries such as Poland, the Netherlands or France. There are also many patients from Russia, the Community of Independent States or from Arab countries in the Gulf. Above all patients from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait come to Germany.
The leading industry association VDVO is the official partner of the MICE event – a wide-range programme of lectures – MICE Hub and MICE Night networking eventsBerlin, 22 January 2018 – Creating a festive atmosphere at events, evaluating events and how to manage diverse audiences – these are just some of the topics which the ITB MICE Forum will be examining at this year's ITB Berlin Convention. The forum targets visitors representing the Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Event industry and will take place on 8 March 2018 in the Convention Hall 7.1a (Room New York 2) from 10.45 a.m. to 2.45 p.m. The Association of Event Organisers (VDVO) is the official partner of the MICE event.
From 7 to 10 March 2018 at the ITB Berlin Convention leading international speakers from industry and science will present valuable ideas and suggestions and provide first-hand expertise and information. Fascinating lectures and panel discussions and topical, exclusive surveys as well as reports on best practices will await visitors to the leading think tank of the international travel industry. Admission is free for trade visitors at ITB Berlin.
At the eTravel World at ITB Berlin visitors to the eTravel Stage and eTravel Lab can again find out about the innovations of the future and their potential impact on the travel industry. With its wealth of knowledge about tomorrow's technology this marketplace is the most important in this segment, and can be found in Halls 6.1 and 7.1c. The focus will be on future-oriented topics such as the blockchain, social media and voice recognition. New events this year include the Hospitality Tech Forum, featuring hospitality industry topics, and the Start-up Day in cooperation with Verband Internet Reisevertrieb (VIR), Germany's leading association for the online travel industry. On 7 March 2018 at 10.30 a.m. on the stage in Hall 6.1 David Ruetz, head of ITB Berlin, and the humanoid robot Pepper will jointly open the eTravel World.
This year, for the first time, exclusive hosts for the day will present the programme, among them the entrepreneur and consultant Axel Jockwer and Prof. Dr. Claudia Brözel of Fachhochschule Eberswalde. After a brief welcome by the Hospitality Industry Club the Wednesday will kick off with a lecture entitled 'Can curiosity beat robots?' by Julia Jung and Stefan Niemeyer of neusta eTourism. The two experts will examine the elements needed for artificial intelligence to awaken users' curiosity. Using concrete examples of best practices they will demonstrate how so-called curiosity marketing can be successful. In his lecture Alex Bainbridge, editor and CTO of DestinationCTO, will talk about driverless cars and their marketing potential for tour operators. Afterwards, Tanja Weinekötter of Marketing + Event Support will examine the possibilities for using social media as a booking tool.
Thursday, 8 March 2018 will witness the launch of a new event. From 2 to 5.30 p.m. at the eTravel World the ITB Hospitality Tech Forum at the eTravel Lab will take place for the first time. The afternoon's events will be hosted by Nick Vivion, the editorial director of tnooz. Events will include a lecture by Conichi founder and CEO Maximilian Waldmann who will illustrate why a certain 'sexy' image is still needed for business travel. Following this, Andriew Lim of the Hotel School Den Haag will examine the challenges and opportunities of the blockchain. Using concrete examples he will demonstrate successful uses of this new technology. In other lectures speakers will look at artificial intelligence in the context of the hospitality industry, personalised pricing policies and individual communications between hotels and their customers.
On Friday, in cooperation with Verband Internet Reisevertrieb (VIR), the focus will be entirely on industry newcomers. At the newly launched eTravel Start-up Day company founders from Europe, America and Asia will meet on the eTravel Stage in Hall 6.1. At a start-up competition and several sessions the new digital community will present its travel technology innovations. On Wednesday the VIR will also act as partner of the Investors Panel.
This year the eTravel World was able to secure tnooz as its exclusive media partner. During the course of ITB Berlin 2018 its journalists will be conducting numerous interviews with fascinating industry personalities and streaming them live. Sponsors and partners of the eTravel World include amongst others Aeroguest, AirDNA, Berner+Becker, Emarsys, Flightroutes, GDX Travel, Hospitality Industry Club, Juvigo, Myhotel, Outdooractive, Safecharge, SDL, travelport, uCloudlink, MTA Masai, Vsourz, 365 Secom Italia, Sojern, Teleticketing and Phocuswright.
You can find out more about the eTravel World at www.itb-berlin.com/etravel.
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 largest event of its kind, 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 and exhibitors. For more information please visit www.itb-berlin.com, www.itb-convention.com and the ITB Social Media Newsroom.
NOVUM Hospitality and MERKUR Development Holding GmbH have begun work on a third niu hotel in the Fasanenhof district of Stuttgart. 144 hotel rooms and 110 serviced apartments covering a total gross floor area of some 10,500 sqm are currently being created. Completion is scheduled for the autumn of 2019. The project volume amounts to some 30 million Euros.
Moxy Hotels is continuously expanding in Europe and the rest of the world. The comfortable affordable hotels with modern design and excellent functionality are a hit amongst travellers. Not only the millennials like to come to one of Moxy"s destinations, people of all ages do. In February 2018 they can put a new place on their itinerary: Moxy Munich Messe.
The ITB Speed Networking event brings leading buyers and exhibitors together – the ITB Blogger Speed Dating event focuses on travel bloggers at ITB Berlin – New: the Blogger Base @ ITB Berlin
Visionary hotelier and businessman, Adrian Zecha has been awarded the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Lifetime Achievement Award 2018.
Visionary hotelier and businessman, Adrian Zecha has been awarded the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Lifetime Achievement Award 2018.
The robust performance of hotels in Europe continued in November with a 9.6% increase recorded in GOPPAR, but somewhat ironically, profit levels at hotels in Germany are being challenged by buoyant economic conditions, according to the latest worldwide poll of full-service hotels from HotStats.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced the opening of Hyatt Place Frankfurt Airport, marking the introduction of the Hyatt Place brand to Germany. Hyatt Place Frankfurt Airport joins six Hyatt Place hotels across Europe, including Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport, Hyatt Place West London/Hayes, Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport, Hyatt Place Jermuk, and Hyatt Place Yerevan. The growth of the Hyatt Place brand in Europe highlights the growing importance of Hyatt"s select service properties across the region.
Music is in the air. As of 1 January, the Jaz Stuttgart has begun to welcome its first guests. After a highly successful launch in Amsterdam, the Jaz in the City brand is now celebrating its debut in Germany – hip, casual, trendy and offering a local touch. Jaz in the City is in tune with the times and reflects urban attitudes. It provides inspiration, stimulation and entertainment and fires the enthusiasm in many ways.
Deutsche Hospitality has entered into a long-term cooperation agreement with the Reiner Meutsch FLY & HELP Foundation. Steigenberger's COO Thomas Willms marked the start of the new arrangement by handing over a cheque for €60,000 to Reiner Meutsch, who set up the organisation and still acts as its President. The aim of FLY & HELP is to support education in developing countries. The donation made by Deutsche Hospitality will be used to help fund and expand two schools in Uganda and Sri Lanka.Some of our contribution comes from donation boxes, whilst further sums were generated via the "Deutsche Hospitality 1 x 1" project. The company uses this scheme to create a charitable pot, to which €1 is added for every online booking made via its own websites. Donation boxes for the FLY & HELP project have been placed in the foyers of all IntercityHotels since as long ago as 2013. The money collected has already helped to finance a new cistern and further classrooms for a school in Rwanda attended by 759 pupils."Children are our future," says Thomas Willms, COO of Steigenberger Hotels AG. "For this reason, it is only right and fair to offer them good prospects. Living up to social responsibility is something that is very close to our hearts. FLY & HELP provides children with access to education and thus enables them to determine the course of their own lives. We are proud that the assistance we give helps to achieve this." Over the coming years, Deutsche Hospitality intends to keep using the donations raised via "1 x 1" to back the foundation's work and will also retain its dedicated donation boxes."I am very grateful to Deutsche Hospitality for the support it has provided to my charity over a period of many years," stated Reiner Meutsch, President of the FLY & HELP Foundation. "This assistance is helping to build a better future for children in developing countries. Many people have become aware of FLY & HELP simply because of the various campaigns, flyers and posters. This produces follow-up donations which permit the construction of more schools."Local children living within the immediate vicinity of many Deutsche Hospitality hotels also had cause to celebrate over the festive season. "A Christmas tree full of children's wishes" is a long-standing campaign via which hotels work in conjunction with a social institution at their own location, such as the German Society for the Protection of Children or children's and young people's homes, to make dreams come true for disadvantaged youngsters. During the period leading up to Christmas, trees hung with gift requests from needy children and young people are erected in the entrance areas of participating hotels. Guests then have the opportunity to take down these cards and fulfil one of more of the wishes. This year saw numerous Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts and IntercityHotels get behind the project once again. Steigenberger Hotels AG Corporate Office also participated.
Scandic Hotels, the largest hotel company in the Nordic countries, has signed a long-term lease agreement with developer B&L Group regarding the operation of a new hotel in Frankfurt.
NOVUM Hospitality has concluded its latest mega-deal, acquiring a conference hotel in Frankfurt-Niederrad at the start of 2018. Following a short refresh, which will take place during normal operations, the 4-star conference hotel with 396 rooms and 14 event spaces will, on the basis of a franchise agreement with IHG® (InterContinental Hotels Group), in future be run as Crowne Plaza Frankfurt Congress Hotel.
It's not a secret that the hospitality industry in Germany is booming. In fact, a recent exploration of the TOPHOTELPROJECTS database found out that of the 10 cities in Europe that have the most active hotel project pipelines, four of them are in Germany. That's almost half of the list.
The impressive benchmark of 40 niu projects has been surpassed! In partnership with Reggeborgh and asenticon, NOVUM Hospitality is developing a niu hotel in bustling Potsdam in an incredibly central location near the main train station. With this development, NOVUM Hospitality surpasses the benchmark of 40 niu hotels comprising more than 8700 rooms.
Berlin, Germany -- The International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) is now accepting nominations for the 2018 Young Leader Award presented at the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin, Germany.