Presse-Information

Only a few days to go until the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show opens on 8 March 2022. Events will kick off with the three-day virtual ITB Berlin Convention, which for the first time is taking place from Tuesday to Thursday. On each of the three days the key topics will be resilience, digitalisation and sustainability. This will be followed on 17 March by the Digital Business Day, which features numerous networking opportunities for buyers and providers. During the summer, a new series of B2B networking events around Europe will round off the format. Attendance at the ITB Berlin Convention is free – the ticketshop is open now. Full details of the programme can be found at itb.com-convention/.

Convention opens with high-ranking figures at the opening conference on 8 March

The opening conference, which will be live-streamed along with other convention events, is scheduled for Tuesday, 8 March at 9 a.m. It will be moderated live by Katie Gallus from the Messe Berlin studio on the exhibition grounds. Martin Ecknig, CEO of Messe Berlin, will open the convention and preview the highlights planned for this year’s ITB Berlin. Attendees will be able to find out first-hand about the show’s cultural destination Georgia from the Georgian ambassador, H.E. Prof. Dr. Levan Izoria. The country was already last year’s ITB Adventure Partner, and in 2022 is presenting its cultural highlights. Next year, when the trade show takes place on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds again, it will be the official host country. Peter Kautz, MD Statista Q, will provide a fascinating insight into how the pandemic will likely change the travel industry’s fortunes as well as customer expectations in the future. Norbert Fiebig, president of the German Travel Association (DRV), will talk about the conflict between the pandemic on the one hand and the increasingly urgent need for sustainability on the other.

Exhibitor presentations and press conferences with fascinating topics

Parallel with the live-streamed convention, a further streaming channel is also available, which companies and organisations can use to hold 30-minute presentations or press conferences. More programme details can be found in the exhibitor presentation and press conference section at:itb.com-convention/.

Tuesday, 08 March 2022

Day one will kick off with Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (German Federal State), which is aiming to become Germany’s number one destination for family holidays. This will be followed by the Sarawak Travel Chat, from the eponymous region in Malaysia. Afterwards, the holiday destination Nationalpark Hohe Tauern will present the national park’s summer programme for 2022. At the event entitled ’Location:City:Destination – Towards an Ecosystem of Hospitality“, attendees can look forward to a panel discussion with Tourismus NRW (German Federal State), moderated by Christian Leetz, chief editor of TourismusNews Deutschland. The guests will be Dr. Heike Döll-König, CEO of Tourismus NRW and Prof. Dr. Harald Pechlaner, professor of Tourism Studies and head of the Centre for Entrepreneurship. At an event moderated by DZT innovation manager Olaf Schlieper, the German National Tourist Board will talk about the role of digital communications in promoting eco-aware and climate-friendly tourism. Thüringen Tourismus will hold an event entitled ’Enjoy culture, experience nature, stay curious’, after which Paraguay will promote itself as the soul of South America. Representing the hotel management platform Stayntouch, Laureline Klijnsma will look at how mobile technology is helping to increase visitor participation and operational efficiency. Afterwards, at a press conference, Pétur Müller, co-founder of the startup DynAmaze, will talk about the effects of dynamic pricing on the leisure and tourism industry.

Wednesday, 09 March 2022

On Wednesday afternoon, convention attendees can look forward to Saxony-Anhalt (German Fedearl State) presenting its UNESCO World Heritage Site. North Rhine-Westphalia will illustrate how its city breaks range from “cool to classic“, and PayPal will present the 2022 Travel Compass. In it, the company will explain how changing demand, booking patterns and payment methods are influencing the German holiday travel market. The Agencia Catalana de Tourismo will talk about Barcelona as a medical destination, and the Balearics will look at “new tourism“ in the age of the pandemic. Another programme highlight will be the presentation of the TO DO Awards, which are co-sponsored by ITB Berlin and honour outstanding examples of social commitment in the industry. Additional presentations and press conferences will be hosted by this year’s cultural destination Georgia, the German National Tourist Board, Turkey, South Africa and the Berlin-based company Profitroom, which will show how to make the most of converting hotels and resorts. Thomas Bömkes, medical tourism advisor to ITB Berlin, will examine the challenges and solutions in medical tourism. Rika Jean-Francois, CSR commissioner for ITB, will present the ITB HNE Travel Entrepreneurship Competition awards.

Thursday, 10 March 2022

Saxony-Anhalt (German Federal State) will kick off day three of the convention by offering inspiration for the upcoming travel season. The Berlin-based company XPRO, a B2B marketplace for experience technologies, products and services, will talk about travel experience as a new status symbol. Destinations presenting themselves will be South Africa, Paraguay and the Chinese region of Huangshan with its mountain peak Mt. Huangshan. VisitScotland, the Slovenian Tourist Board, the DZT and the Balearics will be represented at the ITB Berlin Convention on the last day of the show.

Information for the media and bloggers:

ITB Berlin Convention: attendance is free, but you must register online in advance – itb.com/de/besuchen/tickets/.

Digital Business Day: press accreditation is required – itb.com/de/presse/akkreditierung/. Upon approval of your accreditation you will receive a personalised link for the Digital Business Day. As of Tuesday, 15 March 2022 this link will be active and provide access for onboarding and participation in the Digital Business Day.

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention

Since 1966, ITB Berlin has been the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show. The ITB Berlin Convention, the largest event of its kind, will be held in the period originally scheduled as an entirely virtual event on the new brand website itb.com. The World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) is official “overall sponsor” of the ITB Berlin Convention. Mascontour is sponsor of the Future & Resilience Track at the ITB Berlin Convention. On 17 March the Digital Business Day will give the industry an opportunity to exchange views and do business in a virtual setting from anywhere in the world. As a virtual industry marketplace, it is a further addition to the ITB brand family. A series of B2B networking events which ITB Berlin is planning at European host destinations this year will round off the concept. 3,513 exhibitors from 120 countries were represented at the virtual edition of ITB Berlin NOW 2021 for the duration of the event. Some 65,700 users visited the new online platform, around two-thirds of whom were from abroad. In 2019 around 10,000 exhibitors from 181 countries displayed their products and services to 160,000 visitors, including 113,500 trade visitors. Additional information is available at www.itb.comand from the ITB Social Media Newsroom

Join the ITB Press Newsroom on LinkedIn.
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You can find press releases on the internet at www.itb.com under the section heading Press / Press Releases.