ITB Berlin: tourism sees the light

Worst hit was the Middle East with a decrease of 30 per cent.

However, addressing the annual German-Arab Tourism Forum in Berlin on 17 March 2002, WTO Secretary General Francesco Frangialli, voiced cautious optimism. He predicted that the tourism industry will pick up growth by the second half of 2002, as business travel resumes and consumer confidence returns. ITB, the world's largest tourism trade fair, took place from 16 to 20 March, featuring exhibitors from around 180 countries and territories.

From the Arab region, 12 countries were represented from the Gulf, North Africa and the Levant. Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) alone presented around 70 partner organisations and companies at this year's ITB.
Despite the uncertainties of the business, participation has remained constant this year, thus reflecting the cautious optimism of the tourism community.

The German-Arab Tourism Forum, which was held in conjunction with ITB, brought together ministers of tourism, presidents of chambers of trade & industry as well as representatives of state-run and private sector tourism companies from 22 Arab countries with German tourism experts, including political and business leaders, hoteliers and tour operators.

Discussions centred on strengthening collaboration, investments, new hotel projects, improvements to tourism infrastructure and new tourism destinations. The German side paid special attention to presentations of Dubai's Palm Islands Project and Oman's Al-Sawadi tourism scheme.

The Forum was jointly organised by the Arab-German Chamber (GHORFA), Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal, Messe Berlin, and the German Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. For more information, see www.ghorfa.de.

Germans love sunny Dubai
Prior to the ITB in Berlin, Dubai's DTCM announced that a record number of 150,000 Germans visited the emirate last year, staying 5.13 days on average (2000: 3.76 days). This is two days more than guests from other source countries.

Cruise Tourism gets new impetus
Senior officials from Seetours, the German branch of the third largest cruise company in the world, P&O Princess Cruises, have indicated plans at the ITB to start cruise operations out of Dubai in 2003 following a meeting with the DTCM.

At present, Seetours offers its passengers 1,938 beds on its cruise ships. In 2000, Seetours carried approximately 80,000 guests and achieved a turnover of EUR133 million. This corresponds to a share of about 15 % of the German cruise market. In Germany, more than 300,000 people take a holiday at sea every year.

Sharjah Airport / Lufthansa Cargo strengthen ties
Lufthansa Cargo, one of the world's largest scheduled cargo airlines, has recently resumed its operations to Pakistan from Sharjah International Airport after September 11.
The operation is initially scheduled to operate two flights a week - taking on the new routing Sharjah-Karachi-Lahore-Sharjah.

According to John Koopman, regional manager of handling services for Lufthansa Cargo in the Middle East, Pakistan and Iran, the new operation is a result of increased demand on this route and the confidence in the market recovery which he expects to be back to normal by August-September 2002.