CTO Attended ITB 2006 with Sights Locked on the Future
The Caribbean placed special attention on the German market at a specially organized event at the world´s leading travel and tourism trade fair, ITB Berlin 2006, that came to a close Sunday in Germany.
The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and Messe Berlin, the trade fair organizers, joined forces to present the 7th Annual Karibik Forum, a lively and informative presentation and debate for the European travel trade press and other European and Caribbean delegates to ITB. The presentation took place Friday at the International Congress Center.
The forum¸ entitled “Generating New Business from the German Market”, featured a lineup of key speakers from different sectors of the market who focused on travel trends and outlooks for the German market and German speaking countries; booking long haul holidays on line; the use of websites as a tool to reach the German markets; the opportunities for special interest holidays; and how the smaller Caribbean countries can benefit from partnerships with high quality specialist operators.
“Germany is the world´s largest outbound tourism market, although it currently sends only around half a million tourists to the Caribbean. It is therefore a key source market from Europe which provides strong growth potential,” said Julia Hendry, CTO´s director of marketing in Europe, prior to the presentation.
The forum was moderated by Matthias Schulz, director of international markets for Niedecken Medien, publisher of Germany´s leading travel magazines, including FVW International. Key Speakers included Werner Sülberg, vice president of corporate development and market research for REWE, the fourth largest tourism group in Europe.
As in previous events in Berlin, the Caribbean Tourism Organization put together a full calendar of meetings and decorated a Caribbean Village at which nearly 30 member countries exhibited alongside their private sector partners.
ITB Berlin, which celebrated its 40th year this year, attracted more than 10,500 exhibitors from 180 countries exhibitors.
The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), with headquarters in Barbados and marketing operations in New York, London and Toronto, is the Caribbean´s tourism development agency and comprises membership of over 30 member governments and a myriad of private sector entities.
