The 49th edition of ITB Berlin is booked up and once again exhibitor numbers are high.

From tomorrow, a display area covering 26 halls, 10,096 exhibitors from 186 countries will be offering visitors a representative overview of travel products and services from around the world and of growth-intensive niche markets.

More than two-thirds of the exhibitors showcasing their products and services in the 26 halls on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds are from abroad.

Overall, more than 100,000 trade visitors are expected to attend the world’s largest travel trade show.

On the weekend members of the general public will be able to book their holidays directly with exhibitors.

The focus is on Mongolia, the official partner country of the show.

In Hall 26c, on an area occupying twice that of last year’s event, 30 exhibitors from Mongolia will have information about their products and services and in Hall 4.1 will be exhibiting sustainable tourism products.

In a large yurt at the southern entrance to the show Mongolian hospitality awaits visitors to ITB Berlin.

According to Christian Göke, chief executive, Messe Berlin: “ITB Berlin is a strong marketplace and provides the international travel industry with an ideal platform for negotiating and doing business.

“In turbulent times and against the backdrop of a weak euro and uncertainty in the wake of terrorism and worldwide conflicts this is a particularly valuable and important aspect

“This year we have continued to expand the already well-established ITB Buyers Circle and will be holding the first Buyer Seller Speed Dating event in an aim to give exhibitors’ business an extra sales boost.

“Furthermore, the ITB Convention will be debating all the important industry topics.

“The industry’s largest convention is an indispensable knowledge platform that highlights best practices as well as exclusive survey results and the latest tourism topics,” Göke added.

Some 850 buyers representing the business travel, MICE and leisure travel sectors have been accepted to join the ITB Berlin Buyers Circle.

Their spending budgets are between 100,000 and over 10 million euros.

Many of them are from abroad.

Close to 80 per cent are from European countries and around eight per cent are from the Middle East.

Sharing Economy

The sharing economy will be a key topic at the ITB Berlin Convention, where seven events will be highlighting the challenges and the prospects for the tourism industry.

The ITB Future Day will be debating the future of commercial aviation and of the online travel market. At the numerous ITB Hospitality Day sessions experts will be highlighting the security problems that hotel managers must look out for and looking at the lifestyle experience that budget and luxury hotels have to offer.

This year the ITB Hospitality Day celebrates its tenth anniversary.

At the ITB Destination Days Mongolia, the partner country of the show, will be highlighting the potential of market niche tourism.

The ITB Convention has now established itself as an important place for obtaining knowledge.

This year’s programme features four surveys that were commissioned specifically for ITB Berlin.

In an exclusive empirical survey Travelzoo and ITB Berlin investigated consumer price awareness and discovered that for 60 per cent of Germans the holiday experience took priority ahead of the cost.

More than 5,000 potential interviewees in North America, China, Germany, the UK, France and Spain were asked about their holiday preferences.

Results showed that among wellness tourists the holiday experience had priority, whereas price considerations more often had to do with transport.

At the ITB Marketing and Distribution Day Richard Singer, managing director of Europe Travelzoo, will be commenting the findings and offering advice on how to maximise profits in the travel industry.