News & Stories

Augsburg. The call for online booking for seminar and conference groups has been audible for quite a while. Now Best Western Hotels claims to have established the first of its own online conference portals for event organisers. The portal allows organisers to compare rates and thus better plan spending. On the fringes of the IMEX trade fair in Frankfurt, Dorint Sofitel and Worldhotels also introduced their internet presence. The differences between the three groups are extreme.

Zadar. "Punta Skala" is the name of Falkensteiner Hotel's first mega project, a new hotel in paradisiacal surroundings near Zadar in Croatia. The project is the biggest hotel complex in the whole of Croatia. The South Tyrolean hotel group first plans a Residence & Vacation Club concept. Biggest investor is the Austrian Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank which contributed 110 million of the total 150 million Euros for the project.

Paris. Once again news from Club Med: The French real estate and project developers Icade has acquired four percent of the Club and has committed itself to the development of luxury villas for the project.

Bonn. In 1995 the German Tourism Association carried out its study on city tourism for the first time, taking a look at more cities than ever before. The results of subsequent studies further substantiate the economic significance of this growing tourist group. In Germany itself, city tourism accounts for a gross turnover to the order of 82 billion Euros. Daytrips alone accounted for 2.2 billion day excursions in German cities and turnover of 50.7 billion Euros.

Hanover. TUI Germany is set to merge event management and distribution to one single marketing unit. In future there is to be one central organisation responsible for all volume markets and distribution. This way, the event giant hopes to achieve market leadership. Job losses in management are planned.

Munich. The visitors of the ISPO sports goods fair in Munich will be allowed to camp directly at the eastern entrance of the trade fair area in July. The fair's project management team initiated this "outdoor camp" and, in this way, wants to offer its visitors cheap accommodation - including breakfast. The Bayerischer Hotel- und Gaststaettenverband harshly criticised this form of para-hotel business.

Cologne. Mega-events and mini-seminars - this is the new focus of Europe's biggest holiday park operator, Center Parcs, under its "Business Breaks" brand. In order to realise the initiative, the group has concluded new cooperation partner agreement and engaged a Business to Business Manager.

Oberursel. Europe's second largest tourism group Thomas Cook continues its strategy of terminating capital-intense partnerships: The group is selling its share of the Spanish Inversora de Hoteles Vacacionales hotel company to a bank and a Spanish hotel chain.

Munich. For the fifth time, the "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" will take place during Expo Real at the Munich fair. There will be discussions about topics and regions such as Russia, the Gulf, acquisitions/transactions and evaluations.