March 2007 Feature
Berlin-Potsdam Duo Grab GTM Spotlight, Participants Plan for Munich-Augsburg in 2008
By Tom Bross
Cities chosen for each year’s German Travel Mart inevitably get an extra dose of attention and prestige. So it was with Berlin and neighboring Potsdam, which co-hosted GTM’s 33rd edition, May 12-15. The tradeshow involved 366 exhibitors from all parts of the federal republic, on hand to promote their products to 650 buyers (special-interest group organizers, incentive planners, travel agents). Fifty-two participants came from the U.S., indicating Germany’s steady appeal as a leisure-time and conference destination. In addition, Jax Fax joined a contingent of 70 journalists.
The venue: Estrel Berlin (www.estrel.com), opened three years ago, an impressively laid-out convention center/hotel/theatrical complex in the resurgent Neukölln district, situated in a southeasterly direction from city’s easily recognized Tiergarten parkland and the colonnaded Brandenburg Gate.
GTM’s history dates back to 1972, nearly two decades prior to national reunification. For that initial get-together, just 62 product providers and 51 buyers convened in Frankfurt in West Germany. Compare those numbers with last year’s totals in Düsseldorf where 344 suppliers “talked business” and socialized with a worldwide selection of 592 buyers and journalists. In 1998, easterly Dresden became the first former-GDR city to host the event—followed by Chemnitz (renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt during the socialist era) four years ago.
Seasoned travelers eager to delve into sprawling, cosmopolitan Berlin can immediately “feel” the German capital’s edginess and go-go energy. Record-breaking visitors’ numbers were tallied in 2006—amounting to 7,077,275 arrivals (a 9.5% boost over 2005) and 15.9 million overnight stays. U.S. citizens’ hotel registrations topped the 215,000 mark for a hefty 17.5% increase over the previous year.
High-profile mega-developments have become a local hallmark since the Wall’s celebrated demise. Alongside what used to be a gloomy section of that concrete barrier, reconstructed Potsdamer Platz grabs attention as a showpiece of modernistic architecture at the capital’s geographic, east-west midpoint. Spaciousness and glitz made it the ideal venue for GTM’s opening-night ceremonies.
Europe’s New International Rail-Travel Hub
Heading north from there, passing through the federal government district (more strikingly designed post-reunification buildings and plazas) gets us to an “S” bend of the River Spree, now dominated by Berlin’s main train station (Hauptbahnhof), completed a year ago last May for instant stature as Europe’s biggest, busiest and best. Topped by a solar-paneled curved glass roof, linked to the rest of town by two underwater transit tunnels, this multi-level complex functions as the hub of rail lines crisscrossing the continent.
Fast-forward to 2011 when the metro region will (finally!) have a suitable world-class airport—namely Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI), aimed at vastly upgrading and expanding existing, southeasterly Schönefeld Flughafen facilities. Infrastructure planning includes a full-service main terminal and all-new railroad station for quick inbound transfers to all inner-city districts. Meanwhile, handling flight arrivals and departures keeps things buzzing at Germany’s current transatlantic gateways: well-known Frankfurt and Munich, plus Berlin-Tegel, Düsseldorf and Hamburg. Marketing themes, announced on a periodic basis by the Frankfurt-headquartered German National Tourist Board (DZT) promote attractions and events.
Paintings, Parks and Palaces
Highlighted this year: Art and Culture. For 2008: Palaces, Parks and Gardens. This diverse country certainly excels in those resources, covered in handsome sales guides.
The art-and-culture aspect could perk your clients’ interest in several or many of Germany’s 33 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Included on the list are cathedrals (Cologne, Aachen, Speyer, Trier and Hildesheim, for instance), as well as beautifully preserved old-town quarters (as in Regensburg, Bamberg, Goslar, Quedlinburg, Lübeck and Stralsund-Wismar), plus scenic river valleys (the Middle Rhine and, in Dresden’s vicinity, Elbe meadows and vineyards) as well as Martin Luther memorials (in Wittenberg and Eisleben).
Visitors have plenty of chances to admire important works of art exhibited in Germany’s museums and galleries. Four such showings, for your clients’ picking and choosing: 70 Lucas Cranach masterpieces, Frankfurt’s Städel Museum (Nov. 23-Feb. 17); same riverfront museum for Albrecht Dürer engravings, woodcuts and etchings (Sept. 27-Jan 6); Paula Modershohn-Becker centennial retrospective, Kunsthalle Bremen (Oct. 13-Feb. 24); expressionist paintings by Max Beckmann, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (Sept. 15-Jan. 6).
Shifting our report to next year’s theme brings Würzburg to mind, because of the prince-bishop’s lavishly Baroque Residenz Palace. Dresden’s Residenzschloss amounts to a double attraction: the restored Renaissance edifice and its amazing Green Vault, displaying goldsmiths’ and silversmiths’ treasures. Worth visiting, too: Stuttgart’s mid-city palace gardens, nearby Ludwigsburg Palace, Hannover’s Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen, the flowery Dessau-Wörlitz garden kingdom in ex-GDR Saxony-Anhalt, Essen’s Stadtgarten (complete with symphony hall and opera house) and tropical blossoms covering Mainau, at Bodensee (Lake Constance) island on Germany’s southwestern rim.
Size-wise, Munich’s Englischer Garten (surrounding a zesty Bavarian beer garden) just about matches Manhattan’s Central Park. So are west-side Berlin’s Charlottenburg palace and Potsdam’s Sansouci palace and park, 18th-century home and playground of Prussian royalty’s Frederick the Great.
For more information, contact the German National Tourist Office (GNTO), 800-631-1171 (New York City) or 310-545-1350 (Los Angeles).
A website designed exclusively for the travel trade—www.germany-extranet.com—gives agents access to brochures and sales aids, listings of specialized tour operators, itineraries, marketing themes, updated schedules of trade events and a database of downloadable photos.