Success with Berlin’s Trade Fairs: City attracted 13.6 per cent more guests from all over the world
More than one million visitors took advantage of the final days of summer to take a trip to the German capital. The city’s hotels and guest houses welcomed 1,011,342 guests in September, a growth of 5.9 per cent.

Lifetime Achievement Award for Kurt Ritter at European Hospitality Awards 2012
Rezidor’s President & CEO Kurt Ritter has received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Hospitality Awards 2012. During a gala event at the prestigious The Landmark hotel in London, Ritter was honoured for his extraordinary career: He has been appointed Rezidor’s President & CEO in 1989 and is most probably the longest serving Chief Executive Officer of the hospitality industry.

The market for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) in China has undoubtedly undergone an amazing phase of growth over the past decade. A large portion of this growth has of course taken place in the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. However, Chinese as well as non-Chinese planners have increasingly started to put their feelers out to other Chinese cities. Notwithstanding the MICE-worthiness of China’s first-tier cities, reasons for the fast development of MICE infrastructure in other regions are manifold.

ASEAN Tourism and China will draw closer together at the China International Travel Mart (CITM) in Shanghai, November 15-18.
The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) has provided ASEAN with two booths to boost bilateral tourism relations. ASEAN is keen to increase the number of Chinese visitors to the region as China’s economy continues to grow the fastest in Asia Pacific.

Ministers of Tourism gathered in London for the 6th UNWTO/World Travel Market (WTM) Ministers’ Summit concluded that complicated visa processes and policies that limit air connectivity continue to present major barriers to the growth of travel and tourism. Ministers and representatives from major tour operators and airlines further called for increased intra-governmental cooperation and support from the highest levels of government to break such barriers .

QATAR NATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE GETS READY TO HOST ONE OF THE LARGEST CONFERENCES IN THE WORLD. With less than three weeks to go, the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) has intensified its preparations to take centre stage and host Qatar’s largest conference to date – the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change 2012 (COP18/CMP8). The event which will take place from 26 November to 7 December is expected to attract an unprecedented number of delegates to Doha, representing the United Nations, its specialised agencies and related organisations, governments, non-government and inter-government agencies, civil societies and media from all over the world.