Page 005 Germany TM 19/06/2013 12:15 Page 1
JULY/AUGUST 2013 PAGE 5
Sean Mannion reports from Stuttgart
GERMANY TM 2013
Calling the young Youth and UNESCO heritage German focus for 2013
T
he Stuttgart region played host to the 39th GTM Germany Travel Mart. The German National Tourist Board invited around 620 buyers, tourism professionals and journalists from 42 countries and more than 350 German providers from the hotel, inbound and transport sectors, as well as local and regional tourism organisations. Outside the workshop which took place at the ICS/Stuttgart exhibition centre, guests intent on establishing or strengthening contacts were also treated to a Stuttgart programme of classical grandeur, gastronomic and technical achievement, starting with an evening welcome with Swabian cuisine in the heart of Stuttgart, a big opening ceremony in the "Forum am Schlosspark" in Ludwigsburg followed by an impressive celebration in the Baroque former royal resi-
LEIPZIG set a record in 2012 with an increase of 13.4pc in visitors, the highest growth in overnights for any major German city.
Petra Hedorfer: Youth travel a priority dence of Ludwigsburg Palace, an exclusive evening event in the spectacular Mercedes-Benz Museum and finishing with a visit to the Stuttgart Spring Festival. At a press conference in the Porsche museum, Monday, Petra Hedorfer, chief executive of the GNTB, listed the key areas being focused on in 2013: youth travel, UNESCO World Heritage sites, sustainability and barrier-free travel. "Young international travellers are
a vital target group for the future. From Europe alone, the source region that generates the most overnight stays for Destination Germany, almost ten million trips were made by young people aged between 15 and 29 in 2011.” The GNTB was also set on a course of making the country as barrier-free as possible for travellers with disabilities," Petra Hedorfer added.
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IRISH In 2012 there were a total of 302,591 overnight stays by Irish visitors to Germany, Ireland has a 0.4pc share of the international market. Germany’s market share of incoming visitors is 16.9pc. The Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA were the main inbound markets.
MARTIN LUTHER The decade long celebration of Martin Luther that culminates with the 500th anniversary of nailing his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg in 1517 has been a consistent provider of visitors to such East German towns as Erfurt, Wittenberg and Weimar. HOTELS A new hotel group was launched, one with a twist: Best of SouthWest Germany launched a new nine member association of four and five star hotels Baden- Wuerttemberg. Each member hotel has a restaurant with at least one Michelin star. BERLIN is now Europe’s third most popular tourism city, after London and Paris. GERMANY recorded its third consecutive record year for inbound tourism, with 400m overnight stays in German hotels.