News & Stories

Tripolis/Lausanne. In a few short years, Libya has gone from being labelled a ‘pariah state’ to being tipped as the next ‘hot’ tourist destination. Indeed, Libya, along with Algeria, was named as a country to watch at the World Travel Market in 2007. There is no doubt that the destination offers some unique features to tourists, including an extensive undeveloped Mediterranean seacoast, spectacular ruins and archaeological sites, as well as vast expanses of desert. Nevertheless, business travel driven by the country’s energy sector has been the mainstay of the country’s inbound tourism. Libya currently has 2,864 hotel rooms of international standard in the pipeline, all of which should have entered the market by early 2011.

Frankfurt. At the shareholder meeting of the Aldiana GmbH, Peter Wennel was elected Chairman of the Managing Board. In future, he is also responsible for Paradise Hotels, whose company has been integrated in Aldiana, too.

Frankfurt. Around one half of all companies in Germany plan just as many business trips for 2009 as for 2008. In fact, every tenth company expects the frequency of their business trips to increase. One the other hand, around one third of companies will reduce the number of trips made. And the hotels too will feel the effects.

Portorož. With two new hotels on the Slovenian and Croatian Adriatic coast, Kempinski Hotels & Resort has broken new ground in Europe. Kempinski opened the Palace Portorož on the Slovenian coast and spa town of Portorož in October of last year. The almost 100 year old grand hotel has been painstakingly renovated and extended. Occupancy is, however, still low with most guests coming from neighbouring Italy. On the other side of the bay, almost in view, the Kempinski Hotel Adriatic will open on 1st August after repeated delays. The hotel will offer the first 18-hole championship golf course in Istria. In the background though, GMs are struggling against incomplete infrastructure, lack of facilities and pending court proceedings.

Jeddah. The increase in religious tourism continues to drive the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's real estate growth. Pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Makkah and Medina are expected to reach 8 million by next year according to recent Saudi government figures.

Viersen. Attracting short-trip holiday makers to the German-Dutch border is the goal of the "Cool Breaks" tourism project. The European Union just approved its funding.

Vienna. Tyrol's hotel industry should not lose its competitiveness and be prepared to invest three billion Euros in the future, Manfred Furtner, Tyrol Chairman in the Austrian Hotelier Association made a projection. An OEHV survey of Austrians and Germans on their travel planning gives business in the Germany-dependent Austrian states cause for concern.

Frankfurt. Green living and environmental awareness - last year these were a mere fringe topics. This year, however, the three day MICE trade fair event taking place in Frankfurt placed the topic of environment squarely in focus.  One chain presented its first global programme in this area. From the event news, here are a few more examples of how trends can be set in the MICE business. This year, the fair was attended by almost 9,000 visitors, among these, over 3,700 hosted buyers. The 3,500 companies exhibiting at the trade fair came from 157 countries - a new record.

Wiesbaden. Switzerland is currently advertising its travel offers with eight-column ads in daily newspapers and magazines in neighbouring countries. Austrians are trying to win guests more offensively than ever, granting special investment conditions to hoteliers as well. Not before 2010 will Germany provide additional - minimal - means for tourism advertising. Potential economic stimulation methods such as reduced value added tax are still undecided.

Frankfurt. In the first half of 2008, the MICE business was similarly positive to the same period of the previous year, but it looked already significantly worse in the second half of 2008. All in all, the German business travel industry generated 64.7 billion euros last year compared to 66.7 billion euros in 2007. About 39 billion euros resulted from domestic business travels. Last Tuesday, the German National Tourist Board, the European Association of Event Centres and the German Convention Bureau in collaboration with the European Institute for the Conference Industry presented their common industry survey at the IMEX in Frankfurt for the third time in a row.