ITB Berlin Expecting Representatives from 180 Countries

ITB Berlin Expecting Representatives from 180 Countries

Messe Berlin is expecting around 11,000 exhibiting companies and organizations from more than 180 countries to be present in the 26 halls on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds for the coming 45th Annual ITB Berlin, March 9 to 13. This year’s focus is on Poland, the partner country of ITB Berlin, which is organizing the opening ceremony at the fair. Poland’s regions will be presenting a wide range of products and services to trade visitors and the general public.

More Asian countries will be represented at ITB than ever before. India also reports strong growth. Every available space has been taken in the Asian Hall where exhibitors from the Far East and South-East Asia can be found. Among the exhibitors from the Pacific region the Fiji Islands and Papua New Guinea will be occupying larger stands.

The markets in Central America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East are displaying particularly strong growth, and a substantial number of exhibitors from these regions will be present at ITB Berlin. The Central American Hall has grown by 40 percent. The stand space occupied by exhibitors from Colombia has risen by 35 percent.

Exhibitors from Ukraine have grown several fold. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan und Kyrgyzstan will also be prominently represented. More countries from the Middle East are now also taking part. Iraq as well as Pakistan with the local Gilgit-Baltistan region will also be exhibiting. For the first time, Iran (Hall 7.2a) will be represented directly next door to the “Countries of the Silk Road“ in (Hall 7.2b) at the ”Silk Road Pavilion.”

The Travel Technology section has grown significantly, attracting many more exhibitors from abroad. In all, 10 newcomers will be presenting their technological innovations. They include Fact-Finder Travel, Multicom, Peakwork, Accovia, Vilauma, Lufthansa Systems, Oléry (F) and Openjaw, now back after a long absence from the fair. The presence of the new eTravel World Forum, located in the Mobile Travel Services section also underlines the growing importance of this sector. This year Komoot, as well as international enterprises such as Vodafone, Voyavo from the US and Leadcall from the UK will be represented at the fair for the first time. Other newcomers include TravelSIM from Estonia, Worldmobi from the UK and A1Telekom Austria AG.

The details, products and services of all the exhibitors at ITB Berlin can be found at the Virtual Market Place at www.itb-berlin.com. In 2010, a total of 127 companies from 187 countries exhibited their products and services to 179,351 visitors, who included 110,953 trade visitors.