News & Stories

Dubai. It is difficult to convince tourists to come to the Middle East and North Africa region right now, when daily protests and clashes in various cities are leaving a heavy death toll and events are set to change the political landscape of the region for good. An equally challenging task is talking about hotel development in the region in a conference and not surprisingly, organizers, as well as speakers at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in Dubai held April 30-May 2, tried to put as much of a positive spin on the topic.

Frankfurt. The "Chinese tourist" type has directly undergone a massive change. The number of the sophisticated, well-to-do and English-speaking Chinese in Europe has increased. However, they happily maintain their Chinese habits and also expect that hotels give deference to them and their culture through many gestures and offers. Professor Wolfgang Georg Arlt explains exactly what this means. Simone Spohr interviewed the Director of China Outbound Tourism Research Institute about the "new Chinese tourist".

Tokyo. The three disasters of Japan - earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incident - influence the hotel demand patterns differently. Operators reacted to the event in different ways. A first analysis.

Frankfurt. The “Business Travel % Meetings Show”, which took place in Duesseldorf on April 13/14 and was expanded by a meeting element, presented its final report.

Sarajevo. Bosnia-Herzegovina? Images of war, destruction and refugees go through one´s mind, a national mixture of people, weak economy, high unemployment and corruption. Nevertheless, there is potential for hotel projects. At the beginning of April, the once legendary Hotel Bristol Sarajevo has opened once again. Arabian money and Arabian-European operators have taken a place. Also and in the meantime, other famous chains have signed declarations of intent for projects in the capital. However, hotel development in the 300,000 inhabitant city will remain limited for the time being.

Frankfurt. "Apps" are only interesting for large companies with over 1,500 employees. Small and medium-sized enterprises with up to 250 employees, on the other hand, view the use of such applications for their business travellers as less important.

Uttendorf. The Austrian "big hotelier" Wilfried Holleis loves big projects. Now he wants to correct an "initial mistake" of Weisssee Glacier World with an investment of 10 to 15 million euros.

Berlin. Business is humming again, but there is still some scepticism. Particularly at the 14th International Hotel Investment Forum, it turned out that the financial world cannot keep up with the sector’s demand for new projects yet. There are still major regional differences. In contrast, the 45th ITB was more colourful and versatile: the largest tourism barometer in the world indicated “clear weather”, the mood was positive right from the start and significantly better than last year. However, order volumes during the five days remained on the 2010 level of more than six billion euros – at least according to a preliminary estimate. A comparison of statistics showed decreasing numbers of visitors, whereas the number of trade visitors remained on the same level. The convention supporting programme turned out to be an ITB magnet recording a 15-percent increase in visitors.

Berlin. For the past nine months, the new "Business Unit" NH Resorts has been in the making, now it has introduced itself at ITB Berlin. The takeover of Hesperia Hotels has washed in an amount of resort hotels under the NH roof that now needs their own marketing.

Zurich. French holidaymakers seek budget food, Italians have the most sex with strangers, the Spanish splash their cash, Indian women eat fast food, the Swiss loathe topless sunbathing and sustainability and eco-tourism are most important to Swedes. These are just some of the stark cross-cultural behavioural differences highlighted between 12 disparate markets when on holiday and published at ITB 2011 this week in Berlin.