News & Stories

Berlin. Record results from tour organisers: The German Travel Association has recently presented results on the economic performance of the travel industry for the tourism year 2011/12. The results confirm that Germany‘s desire to travel is unbroken - as is demand for tour organisers.

Frankfurt. In future, business trips will be paperless. The traveller will check into the hotel with his smartphone and will also use this to pay for the overnight stay and all other travel services. These technologies are now forcing travel managers to change their way of thinking.

Oberursel/Frankfurt. On the one hand, Thomas Cook tries to trim its hotel brands, on the other hand, Thomas Cook separates from the club provider Aldiana.

Dubrovnik/Oberursel. Thomas Cook will be clearly extending their offers in the German market for Summer 2013. Along with this is the new brand, "Smartline" for price-sensitive vacationers as well as the "Adults Only" brand "Sunprime Resort" already tested in Scandinavia. The Sentido brand's target groups will be extended.

Vienna. Austria's Minister for Economic Affairs Reinhold Mitterlehner and Oesterreich Werbung are expecting a record high in turnover and numbers of overnight stays this winter. In 2013, the holiday times and public holidays are perfect and the continuous boom from Russia should compensate for the expected decrease from Italy. Skiing remains the driving force of the winter business; however, at the same time, the cable car industry is not willing to invest outside the skiing centres, which leads to the cable cars' lowest investment level in twelve years. This dampens the euphoria in Austria where the most important season of the year is getting under way now.

Singapore. The fifth edition of ITB Asia came to a close last Friday in Singapore and has been its most successful event to date in terms of growth in exhibitors, quality buyers, conference partners and trade delegates. In 2013, the show will even expand further.

Zurich. New statistics reveal the vital importance of the meeting segment in Switzerland. In 2011, meeting participants generated 19 percent of the recorded hotel room nights – almost 20 percent. This is the result of an initial holistic statistical survey.

Doha. In Qatar's capital city, two thirds of branded hotels belong to international hotel operators. But there are still many to come. Between now and 2022, when Qatar will finally be a hotspot of public interest thanks to the FIFA World Cup, there is still a lot to be done – also in the hotel sector. By 2022, the number of hotel rooms and apartments will have risen from 19,000 to 65,000. These masses of hotels have to be structured at an early stage and new hotels have to be given future-oriented guidelines. Therefore, the country's supreme tourism authority, the Qatar Tourism Authority, commissioned a German consultant with the development of the hotel classification criteria. These will be more demanding than those of the European hotel umbrella association HOTREC. And starting this year, there is even a minimum of requirements for investors and developers.

Zurich. The Swiss tour operator, Kuoni, has announced the separation of loss-generating tour operators in some European countries as well as the B2C online hotel platform, Octopustravel, and is currently reviewing exit possibilities.

Port Louis. Five star hotels offering partial or full all inclusive packages are now under pressure of Mauritius Tourism office Board.