ITB 2007 to Home in on Asia

ITB, the world’s largest travel trade show, will launch an Asian edition which Singapore will host in the last quarter of 2008. Details are sketchy at this moment but Messe Berlin, the organizer of the show, will reveal it a few weeks from now.

The announcement raises several issues but doesn’t come as a surprise. Singapore has been wanting to stage a world-class travel show for some time since PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) decided to take over the organization of PATA Travel Mart which was anchored in Singapore since 1998.

Anyone who is anybody in the travel industry would have gone to ITB. And anyone who has gone to ITB (including those at the Singapore Tourism Board) would probably know the scale and immensity of the show.

ITB is not a show which can be replicated with a regional edition. It’s grown over the years and key to it is the huge German domestic market. By extension, the show benefits from the vast European hinterland –a contiguous area where intra-European travel is relatively seamless and cheap. Singapore is tiny by comparison though it boasts good connectivity.

It’s true the world still goes to ITB – witness the increasing sizes of Asian country booths at the show in recent years. It’s not as if the Asian destinations would stop or reduce their scale of participation at ITB Berlin to go to Singapore’s Asian edition.

The arrival of ITB Asia also challenges established pan-Asian shows like PATA Travel Mart. PATA has already canned its annual PATA Conference in favor of a more high-powered summit.