Christoph Debus, 38 years old, will join the management of Air Berlin PLC on June 1, 2009. He will be responsible for sales, network and IT. “We are glad to have gained a proven aviation expert in Christoph Debus,” said Joachim Hunold, Chief Executive Officer of Air Berlin PLC.

Before his appointment, Debus had worked for air carrier Condor for four years, managing IT, controlling, personnel, accounting, balancing and financing. As part of his role at Condor, he was also a member of the Airline Executive Board at Thomas Cook Group PLC. The father of two sons worked for management consultancy Roland Berger from March 1998 to late 2004.

Malaysia was among the Asian countries with the strongest rise in visitors from Germany in 2008. The Southeast Asian country was able to maintain this growth in visitors from the German market throughout the first two months of 2009, despite the global economic crisis.

In order to continue the positive trend, Malaysia is increasingly cooperating with its Asian neighboring countries and international airlines, while at the same time continuously expanding its tourism products. True to this approach, there will be several hotel openings in 2009 – Penang, for instance, will see the opening of Malaysia’s first Hard Rock Hotel in late summer, while the Bunga Raya Island Resort & Spa will be welcoming its guests in Sabah on Borneo.

One month in Taiwan – a dream come true for Maria Hartwig and Boris Benesch. They were chosen by the Taipei Tourism Office in Frankfurt am Main and the student’s magazine UNICUM to spend a Work and Travel on the „Ilha Formosa“ as Taiwan scouts.

They reached their destination on April 1 and have since been reporting about their experiences in the Taiwan community. The first blog entries are already on-line – the two scouts were cordially welcomed and didn’t have to wait long for a first taste of the island’s culinary adventures. In addition to Chenchu Naicha, the scene drink containing tea, milk and small dumplings, one of the students even dared try the exotic specialty of duck’s feet.

Germany’s second-largest air carrier Air Berlin was able to improve its returns per seat kilometer to 5.45 euro cents in March, 4.2 percent on the previous month’s 5.23 euro cents. Although capacities were reduced by only 0.8 percent compared to March of the previous year, the number of passengers decreased by 5.6 percent to 2,053,960 (March 2008: 2,175,427). At the same time, aircraft utilization decreased by 3.7 percentage points to 74.1 percent (March 2008: 77.8 percent). The decrease in passengers is partly due to the Easter season, traditionally strong in revenues for the tourism-centered airlines, not taking place in the month of March this year.

Travel managers expect crisis to last

Only 20% of travel managers organized in the “Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement e.V.” (VDR – German Travel Management Association) have not yet observed an impact on business trip activity by the financial and economic crisis. While more than 60% were affected in winter of last year, the percentage rose to slightly above 80% by mid-February. This was shown in a survey among travel managers organized in the VDR conducted by Prof. Dr. Ernst-Otto Thiesing of the tourism management department at Karl-Scharfenberg Faculty Salzgitter, Technical College Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, in February.

Cape Arkona Bunker in Putgarten on Rügen
Cape Arkona, on the island of Rügen, was the northern-most spot in the GDR and thus a location of military significance. Directly adjacent to the two lighthouses on the cape, there are two military bunkers. One of them, the Arkona Bunker, was built and used by the Wehrmacht in the Third Reich. In the GDR, it was the the headquarters for the 6th Border Brigade Coast. The second bunker, erected between 1979 and 1986, may be explored in guided tours today. An exhibition informs visitors about the history of the 6th Flotilla/Bow and the People’s Navy of the GDR, and displays former bunker equipment and a photo series about the People’s Navy.