Messe Berlin ITB Convention

Record visitor attendance at the ITB Berlin 2007 at the largest travel industry convention in Europe

"At the ITB Berlin 2007 the ITB Convention Market Trends & Innovations again fully justified its role as the travel industry's think tank ", concluded Professor Dr. Roland Conrady, scientific director of the ITB Convention Market Trends & Innovations. The marked and positive international response to the convention's attractive programme comprising high-ranking speakers and panel guests from business and politics resulted in impressive visitor attendance with record numbers. A total of 9,000 trade visitors from around the world took part in the five-day convention, a 25 per cent increase over last year's figure. Dr. Martin Buck, Messe Berlin Director Competence Center Travel & Logistics: "The ITB Convention has become an important part of the ITB Berlin, again emphasising our role as the global tourism industry's leading travel trade show."

Among the main highlights attracting the public were the ITB Future Days and the climate change debate which currently presents a challenge to the travel industry. The ITB Hospitality Day and the ITB Aviation Day also underlined their role as leading industry forums. Now in its third year, the ITB Business Travel Days event is a firmly established platform for business travel managers, offering practical workshops, national forums, and the newly introduced Suppliers Day. With such a packed programme of seminars the individual events achieved higher visitor numbers. Altogether over 2,000 trade visitors came to find out about the latest developments in the business travel sector.

This year the top-level PhoCusWright@ITB Travel Technology Convention successfully staged its second event. For two days the focus was on innovations in this fast-developing sector, and the new programme schedule proved to be a welcome service to participants. Each of the sessions on the first day was repeated a day later, enabling the 500 registered attendees to flexibly arrange their own visits. On average some 125 trade visitors attended the papers and subsequent roundtable discussions. Many made use of the lounge area to exchange views with leading speakers from PhoCusWright@ITB Berlin. This was also the first year that the Travel Technology Convention PhoCusWright@ITB in Hall 7.1b included an integrated exhibition area, which complemented the Travel Technology section in a very positive way.