News & Stories

Zurich. The venues of action: The Swiss Alps. Andermatt, Davos and Verbier. A new, unusual hotel will open its gates in Wallis. The first W Hotel in Switzerland will be launched with the W Verbier and The Residences at W Verbier. More still: It is the first W Hotel worldwide that Starwood Hotels & Resorts will open in the alpine realm. Up to now, the hotels have been considered a "Label for trend scouts and international jet setters," only at home in pulsating cosmopolitan cities and exotic holiday destinations. Moreover, The Chedi Andermatt will open with full sparkle on the 20th of December. With this, the legendary luxury hotels of the GHM Group will now also be represented in Europe. Then at the beginning of the year, in time for the next meeting of the World Economic Forum, the new InterContinental Hotel will follow in Davos.

Berlin. Shorter distances, a new structure and think tanks, treating burning topics within the tourism industry, arouse the interest for ITB 2014. Brand new is one more hall location for Europe with a focus on Central European countries, key topics of the ITB congress are new technologies and luxury travel. First topics for the 9th "ITB Hospitality Day" are also set.

Dubai. Dubai has been celebrating itself since Wednesday: The Arab Emirate will be the host of the "World EXPO 2020". It will be the first world exposition in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region and should draw more than 25 million visitors.

Philadelphia. The recovery gathers speed in US conference centers. In 2012, regional meetings increased, drove occupancy and general growth. Increasing revenues and strict cost control finally led to a higher net income.

Frankfurt/M. Business travellers must expect global prices rises for hotel stays in 2014. Responsible for these rises won't be global economic trends, but rather individual events in various regions. These include, for instance, Brazil's preparations for two large international sporting events.

Singapore. The sixth edition of ITB Asia, which came to a close on October 25 at the Suntec Exhibition & Convention Centre in Singapore, confirmed its position as the leading annual travel trade show in the region. Across three very packed days, it attracted more than 9,100 visitors from over 110 countries, a 7% increase over 2012. The number of exhibitors from the United States was the highest on record. The increased interest in ITB Asia from trade visitors and exhibitors alike is the rich accompanying programme of events.

Vienna. In Austria, 82 percent of small and medium-sized businesses take their travel decisions without long-term budget planning. With a new online tool called "BEeasy.at", Verkehrsbuero Group aims at taking advantage of the increasing enthusiasm in online booking among these businesses. The group analysed the booking behaviour of small and medium-sized businesses via its own special survey and is now in the process of readapting its services to this target group. Accordingly, SMBs are increasingly becoming direct bookers on the Internet. When it comes to flight reservations, there have already been changes in behaviour, and the same can be observed in terms of hospitality.

Sochi. Sochi 2014 seems to be occurring under the motto "Taking part is everything - but expensive." The winter sports men and women will go to Sochi on a medal hunt next year from the 7th to the 23rd of February. These games are a direct topic for the winter sports nation of Austria and they should ultimately further boost their own business at home. Austria's economy is pumping more than two million Euro into the presence of the "Austria Tyrol House" during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, but Germany and Switzerland have also allowed themselves the cost of their presence in the millions. Each of the three countries is represented with their own "House", either by the Black Sea or in the mountains. Meanwhile, everyone is having problems inspiring sponsors of the domestic economy for Sochi. The other side of a mega event.

Hanover. When booking their holidays, the Germans are increasingly making use of online offers coupled with personal counselling. Today, every second trip starts with internet research followed by the final step of booking at the travel agency. All in all, more than every third trip is booked via internet in the meantime.

Vienna. The Congress of Vienna does not dance any longer. The bottom line of the current trend in the MICE business, as the leader of the Vienna Convention Bureau, Christian Mutschlechner, on the trade fair for meetings, incentives, conventions and events "Access '13" in Viennese Hofburg drew. Apart from the perfect organisation, only content and contemporary forms of the mediation counted today, the event programmes stepped into the background for several reasons. "The touristic environment of the venue is becoming dull", he describes one of the results. This places the Austrian MICE marketers in front of new challenges. But probably not only the other countries - the trend will emerge far beyond Austria.