First report on the mood at Europe’s largest tourism and travel trade fair. The traditional CMT was off to a successful start on the weekend. For the second time, the travel trade fair opened its gates at the exhibition center by Stuttgart Airport. Around 60,000 people visited during the first two days, alone, in order to get a hold of the most recent holiday trends or maybe one or the other insider tip for travel in 2009. The exhibition for caravan, motor and tourism will remain open on the new fair grounds of Stuttgart through 01/25/2009. The CMT is the largest public exhibition for tourism in Europe. A total of about 200,000 travel-loving visitors are anticipated until January 25.
Just as in the previous years, the CMT, regarded as mood and trend barometer for the ongoing year, is completely booked up. Visitors showed special interest in Romania and Argentina, the partner countries of this year’s exhibition, during the opening weekend. Romania seems to again be heading for a healthy plus for 2009. After all, good accommodation including breakfast is available for as little as 50 Euros per night. Rates at similar levels are offered in the Eastern European countries of Bulgaria and Czechia – guests are being charged more only in Prague. This seems to indicate a first trend in European travel for the travel year 2009. The Eastern Europeans will be among the winners of travel year 2009.
Together with Chile, Argentina, with its varied nature, is getting plenty of inquiries as well, as Steffen Albrecht, Director of Karawane Reisen, knows. Individually planned drive-yourself tours in four-wheel vehicles are particularly high in demand here. South America seems to also be heading towards a positive booking trend in 2009.
Generally, the following is true: The demand for high quality long-range trips with positive quality standard will be undiminished in 2009. South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, but also Australia are dominating the favor of the audience of Karawane’s stand in hall 4 during the first weekend of CMT. Guided and individual trips to Asia are arousing strong interest, as well. This also holds true for RV trips to the USA and Canada – the exchange rate of the dollar may be playing a role here.
Group trips lead by German travel guides – educational and adventure trips world wide – are sparking plenty of interest, too, especially with an older audience.
„Special programs such as ‘Archaeology & Travel’ or ‘Adventure Archaeology – and YOU help excavating’ find their specific audience“, Uwe Hartmann, responsible for this travel segment at Karawane, reports.
„The people’s demand for high quality, tailored and individual trips has grown tremendously in today’s times. This is shown by the visitors’ strong interest in this type of travel, which is so different from mass tourism. The security of a well-guided group trip to all parts of the world continues to spark interest in our older clientele. It seems that ‘travel’ continues to be highly valued among the Germans, despite the economic crisis. We do not anticipate a setback in our quality offers in 2009“, said Director Steffen Albrecht of Karawane Reisen, Ludwigsburg.
