The German National Tourist Board (GNTB), together with over 20 leading German tourism partners, concluded a successful appearance at the Arabian Travel Market 2018, the key travel trade exhibition in the region held in Dubai from April 22-25.
 
For four days, visitors to the German National Tourist Board’s stand met representatives of a broad selection of tourism enterprises and regions such as the State Tourist Board Baden-Württemberg and the Black Forest Highlands, the great cities of Cologne, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Hannover and the scenic Wiesbaden in Hesse. The participants hailed from various sectors including luxurious hotels, department stores and designer outlet malls, as well as state-of-the-art hospitals and medical providers.

Additionally, in line with GNTB’s central annual campaign ‘Culinary Germany’, visitors were invited to savour a taste of the German cuisine with a variety of pretzels and cakes in addition to the German potato salad and the famous schnitzel.

Sigrid de Mazieres, director for the Gulf countries at the German National Tourist Office (GNTO), an affiliate of the German National Tourist Board, said: "We are delighted with the outcome of our participation at the Arabian Travel Market, where we updated the region’s tourism industry about Germany’s great diversity and travel offerings and we hope to have inspired many in view of the upcoming summer holiday season. Our presence at ATM shows the importance of the GCC region for the German tourism sector, and we are very pleased with the strong response we received towards ‘Destination Germany’."

During the exhibition, GNTB revealed a remarkable surge of 3.7 per cent in the number of overnight stays from the GCC region in Germany recorded in January compared to the same period last year. This development reaffirms Germany's growing interest in the GCC market as a source of inbound tourism.

Supporting this outlook, the German stand visitors during ATM 2018 expressed significant interest in visiting Germany, both for business and leisure, citing the country's natural beauty, rich cultural offerings and impressive infrastructure as main reasons for travel.

On their part, GNTB’s premium partners expressed their satisfaction with their participation in ATM 2018 and their great optimism regarding its investment and business benefits and opportunities.
 
Dimitri Belov, manager marketing development at Dusseldorf Tourism, said: “This kind of participation draws us closer to our target markets, where we are able to develop a better informed outlook on the kind of services that meet the needs and desires of our GCC clients. We are looking forward to welcoming the GCC tourists to our beautiful city of Dusseldorf, where they can enjoy its relaxing atmosphere, in a very modern and family-friendly setting. Both adults and children can spend a peaceful and delightful vacation around the city’s parks and the aqua-zoo.”

Meanwhile, Christina Gobil, head of sales and tourism at Ootletcity Metzingen, said: “Our participation has allowed us to introduce our special features to the GCC visitors, especially, our separate praying facilities for men and women, ablution rooms, Arabic-speaking staff and interpreters, and facilities at the kids club, which drew the interest and admiration of all of our ATM visitors, notwithstanding our luxurious shopping facilities with the most intriguing architecture and design.”

Christian Witt, director corporate communications, Marketing and Sponsoring at Breuninger, noted: “Our presence at the ATM has given us the opportunity to introduce the unique shopping experience at our luxury department store Breuninger. We offer a variety of customized services especially for our very welcome guests of the GCC countries. Services like Arabic speaking staff, a personal shopping service, private fitting and beauty rooms, a Mercedes-Benz shuttle service and also the possibility of booking the entire store for an exclusive visit outside the official opening hours for very special guests are one-of-a-kind.”

The GCC is one of the top 20 source markets for Germany and the third largest non-European source market, after China and US. In 2016, Germany ranked top among GCC travellers, even ahead of UK, Turkey and France.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, there were 83.9 million international overnight stays recorded in German accommodation establishments with at least 10 beds. For the eighth consecutive year, the number of visitors to Germany in 2017 reached record levels, showing a 3.6 per cent increase overall to 2016. - TradeArabia News Service