After a long interval a number of countries are returning to Berlin to promote their tourism attractions and facilities. They include Malawi (Hall 20), Gabon (Hall 4.1) and Bahrain (Hall 23).

The world’s newest nation, Kosovo (Hall 3.2), will be one of the new exhibitors this year. A number of hotels are making their first appearance at ITB Berlin 2009, including the Bahia del Duque (Tenerife) and the Gran Hotel Valentin Imperial Maya (Cancun).

ITB Berlin, which is taking place for the 43rd time from today to March 15, has been fully booked since February and reports that exhibitor numbers have remained stable at last year’s level.

In 2011 the focus at ITB Berlin will be on Poland, the partner country of the show. On Tuesday, March 3 in Berlin, Rafal Szmytke, President of the Polish Tourism Organization and Dr. Martin Buck, Director Competence Center Travel & Logistics for Messe Berlin, signed a preliminary agreement between the global travel industry’s leading trade show and Poland, the future partner country of ITB.

On March 10, the opening press conference of ITB Berlin will be streamed live on the Internet for the first time, at www.itb-berlin.com. Journalists also can take active part in the press conference at www.itb-berlin.com.

In times of economic crisis playful innovations are likely to be the main victims. The focus is shifting in travel technology too. In the short term experts anticipate attention being directed towards applications that will help reduce costs and increase revenues. Improving sales efficiency and streamlining back offices will be more important than visionary solutions for mobile applications, social networks or a semantic web.