One third of all online users obtain information about travel from the internet – travel communities exert a growing influence on holiday decision-making: the main criterion is the genuineness of the evaluations, according to a representative poll by the Internet Travel Marketing Federation (VIR)

30.8 million Germans now rely on the internet as a source of information when making their travel plans. Of this figure, around 7 million use travel communities as a basis for making a final decision about their journey. A further 5 million intend to rely on these virtual communities for making their travel decisions in the future.

EMITT Fair, which started introducing a guest country as of last year, is to host Egypt as the guest country at EMITT 2010. Having been visited by 44 thousand Turkish tourists in 2006, 50 thousand in 2007 and 52 thousand in 2008, Egypt aims to attract attention at this important tourism event.

East Mediterranean International Tourism and Travel Exhibition (EMITT) is opening its doors for the 14th time to tourism professionals from all over the world. Hosting Egypt as the guest country of this year, EMITT 2010 Fair will be held at TÜYAP Fair, Convention and Congress Center in Beylikdüzü between February 11 and 14, 2010.

Commentary by Joachim Fischer

London has it, Singapore has it, for Berlin it’s turned into a mere “maybe“ – Beijing is standing on shaky ground and as to Orlando – we’ll see!
This is the present situation on the novelty so eagerly awaited by the cities’ tourism professionals.

According to reports by “BZ“, Berlin’s largest newspaper, based on information from Frankfurt banking circles, financing of the Berlin and Orlando Ferris wheels is more than questionable.

spielzeit’europa | Berliner Festspiele and the legendary French street theatre company Royal de Luxe will present a theatrical event in October on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On their journey through Berlin the two giant marionettes measuring up to 15-meters high, the Little Giantess and the Big Giant, tell a fairytale of finding each other again after a long separation. The event takes place under the patronage of the cultural minister Bernd Neumann and comprises the main event celebrating German Unification Day. Royal de Luxe will enchant Berlin’s public with their enormous figures and will revive the emotions of 1989.

Association conventions in Berlin are attracting the most attendants worldwide – this was found by a recent statistics report of ICCA, the International Congress & Convention Association. The report shows that Berlin welcomed more than 100,000 visitors of conventions in 2008, placing the German capital well in front of other world cities such as Barcelona (81,933), Paris (73,872) and Bangkok (58,007).

The 15th edition, second in Cuba, of MITM Americas, Meetings and Incentive Travel Market, is receiving a surprising amount of registration requests from meetings and incentives organizers from Europe and also the United States, to participate as hosted buyers, as well as from exhibitors from all the Americas.

MITM, which will take place next November 18th and 19th, accepts a maximum of 100 exhibitors and the same number of buyers, and has already received more than 300 participation requests from buyers of 16 countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and UK, as well as the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.